Dragonling
by moemon-master
Summary: Josh, a new rider with his dragon, Blugun, have gone to the Isle of the Riders to train. On the flight over to the Isle, there was a terrible accident that helps to uncover secrets that had been buried deep for hundreds of years. Set after Inheritance, about five hundred years later.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing except for the characters that I am making.**

The storm continued to rage around us. The thunder and lightning was deafening, lighting up the night sky and the dark clouds. The rain and sleet hit us like arrows, and the wind buffeted us all over the place. But no matter what the risk, we were going to make it to the island.

Blugun, my mind and soul partner for almost seven months now had his eyes closed against the freezing rain so as not to damage his eyes. His dark blue scales made him difficult to see in the night but his talons and claws were always a pure ivory white so I never lost track of where his large horns were going until I scanned the horizon for signs of land.

I barely managed to feel joy about finally spotting the island when I felt several sharp, burning, and searing pains run along my right arm. I opened my mouth and screamed in pain, but the wind ripped the sound straight from my mouth. If not for our mental connection, Blugun never would have realized that I was in serious pain.

When he turned his head to look back at me to see what was wrong, his neck spikes tore into my arm further. When Blugun saw what he was doing he quickly dipped his neck, pulling the spikes out of my arm.

I held my arm close to me, to try and staunch the bleeding but it was to no avail. The bleeding wouldn't stop and I was starting to feel woozy. I gripped onto my saddle with my good arm and prayed to the gods that I would live through this night.

The gods must have heard me because the storm started letting up a bit.

Blugun, seeing his chance, flew as hard and as fast as he could towards the island before the storm regained its strength.

The last thing I saw before passing out was the island rapidly approaching. Then blackness veiled my eyes and I barely heard whispers coming from around me. Slowly Blugun's mental connection started to fade and I wondered where he was going. Probably to get some food. I smiled at the thought of warm food in my stomach.

The last thing I did before falling into the dark was thank the gods for letting us through the storm, then I knew no more.

_Blugun_

I lashed out at the people gathering around me and my rider. I refused to let them near him. They kept saying to let them through so that they can help but I didn't believe them. I knew that they were just going to try and take him from me.

The entire journey here had been a trap to lure us here and now I refused to let them near us to finish off the job.

I continued to fight off the people with fang, claw, tail and mind until I felt another being touch my mind. It quickly tore through my defenses and subdued me. Then in the ancient language it told me that it was a friend and that it wished no harm.

_Please, let my healers help your rider. They want only to help, not hurt._ The voice said.

_I shall not hand over Josh to a bunch of random people. I shall heal him myself!_I screamed in my mind. I felt a torrent of energy course through me and I directed it at Josh, who was lying completely still beneath me.

I released the energy into Josh using the first fire I ever breathed. The deep blue of my flames bathed over his right arm. I smelled no burning flesh, Josh didn't scream out in pain, but within the fire I saw his arm changing. Hopefully for the better.

When the energy was all spent, I released my fire and collapsed next to my rider. I wanted to see if Josh's arm was okay now, but I was just too tired to even lift my head. I fell asleep next to my rider, worrying that I had just made his arm worse than before.

_The next day_

I awoke in a bed, covered in blankets. I looked around the large room for some kind of enemy. The only thing that could have possibly been dangerous to me was the midnight blue dragon that was curled up in the corner on top of a large cushion like a kitten. His sides were rising at an even tempo, so I knew that he was alright and sleeping.

I looked around the room again, but this time out of curiosity. The room was huge, the ceiling tall enough for Blugun to stand up straight with his wings stretched out. The room was wide enough that Blugun could have fit two of himself, tip of the nose to the end of his tail.

The room was nicely furnished. Several comfortable looking chairs, bookcases, the bed I was still lying in, several small tables, and a door on the left side of the room, a door on the right, and a door directly facing the bed. Clear on the other side of the room it looked like a large piece of parchment was pulled over a hole in the wall.

I gently prodded Blugun awake with my mind and I asked him what happened. When he mentioned doing something to my arm I looked down at it. It was covered in bandages, all the way from my fingertips to underneath my shirt.

Before I could try and peel off the bandages a man walked into the room. I looked up from my arm and saw the man I had come to see.

Eragon Shadeslayer. The leader of the riders. He wore a light blue tunic, light brown leather pants, dark leather boots and his dark brown hair was slicked back revealing his intense brown eyes.

I quickly got down out of the bed and kneeled down on the floor. Blugun did almost the same. He dropped his head down and pulled back a paw, slightly resembling a bow. We had practiced it back in Surda with Mother. She had always said that good manners were a good way to a good heart.

"Arise, my new rider and dragon." Eragon waited until we were on our feet then asked us "What are your names?"

"My name is Josh Calvinsson sir. This is my dragon. His name is Blugun." I told Eragon.

Eragon nodded and said "Did you travel far to reach here?"

I nodded and said "Yes sir. We traveled from the farthest border of Surda to get here. It was a long journey but we survived and are very grateful for your hospitality."

"That is indeed a long journey." I barely heard him mumble something about our great manners, unlike all the others. I passed this on to Blugun and he felt the same joy and pride that I did. "From the looks of it, Blugun is about six to seven months old. Am I correct?"

"Yes sir."

He nodded and continued inspecting Blugun. This time Blugun passed on what he heard from Eragon onto me. Eragon was mumbling about how well Blugun looked, especially after such a long journey. Again we felt proud.

"You two do a very nice job of keeping clean. Blugun's teeth and claws are spotless. Usually after such a long journey there is a large amount of plaque buildup on the teeth and the blood from the kills would usually stain the claws. But your teeth and claws are the cleanest I have seen on a new recruit's in years. It is truly astounding. Whoever raised you two, was a great man."

"My mother raised us. My father ran out on us a few years after I was born. He said that he didn't want to deal with me anymore and then he left without anything. He left his clothes, belongings, he left everything behind. It took a while but my mom managed to get back up on her feet and she raised us right. We aren't in the least bit spoiled, mean, know it all's or jerks. We were raised better than that. We were raised to protect all that can't protect themselves."

"Your mother sounds like the best mother in the world. Despite her hardships she flourished. She had a wonderful son who became a rider thanks to you picking him, Blugun. I can understand why you picked him from within your egg. I am grateful that you two chose to come to my island. Please, rest before dinner. I will send for you when it is time to eat." Then Eragon walked out of the room.

I sat down on the edge of my bed and stared at my arm. I ran a hand over it but all I could feel was the bandages. I found the end bandage and slowly started to unwind it from the shoulder down. There were several layers to go through, but I finally reached the last one. I took it off, strip by strip and watched as my arm was revealed.

The arm that hid beneath the bandaged did not belong to me. It belonged to a dragon. The scales were a glossy black, with the scales on my palm fading to grey. But the gedwëy ignasia stood out against the scales in a bright, almost metallic silver. Then an ivory claw extended half an inch out of every finger.

I felt the regret pouring out of Blugun's mind. It was like a tidal wave, about to wash me away. "Did you do this to me?" I asked him.

He didn't answer, but I could feel from his mind that it was his fault.

I went over to him and stroked his scaled nose. "Don't feel sorry. This arm is amazing. Now if I lose my sword then I can just fight using this arm."

_Do you really not hate me for it?_Blugun asked me.

"Of course I don't hate you for it. Now I am part dragon! That is something not many people can say." I told him.

_But now you will be unable to get a mate. What kind of a woman will want a human and dragon hybrid as the father of her young ones?_

"Well I don't need a mate. I'll have my best bud next to me at all times."

Blugun grinned his toothy grin and laughed. I joined in the laughing and our joy filled the room with our laughter.

It was several minutes before we stopped laughing and I wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing so hard. I didn't realize I was using my dragon arm to wipe the tears away until I almost poked my eye out with the claw on the tip of my pointer finger.

I switched hands and wiped the tears away, and then I sat down next to my dragon and lay against him. He started humming a song that my mother always used to sing to us. I joined in the song and our voices filled the room with the familiar song, making us miss home.

I uttered the last syllable and heaved a sigh of relief.

"We did it Blugun. We made it to the Isle of the Riders." I said to my dragon.

_Yes, we did. I wish that we had waited just another day. Then we wouldn't have had to go through that horrible storm._

"Me too buddy, me too." I said to him.

I fell asleep thinking of all that will be different because of my new arm.

I continued dreaming until a knock came at the door. I looked over to the door and saw an elf standing there, staring at my arm.

"Yes?" I asked him.

"Dinner is ready. Follow me and I will lead you to the dining area." Then he quickly left the room, closing the door behind him.

I hastily rewrapped my arm in the bandages, not wanting everybody staring at my arm. I went back to the bed and looked around for my ring. I found it on the table beside the bed and slipped it on the pointer finger of my left hand. The ring was silver with a dark sapphire set into the center of it. Then I left through the door and looked around.

I was outside a building with three stories on it, each story had its own stair case. Mine was the shortest because of how it was on the bottom level of the building.

From the top story of the building rose a silver dragon with a girl sitting on it. They flew off to the north before I could get a good look at them.

I walked down the stairs and to the ground, then I followed the elf as he showed me the way. Blugun walked through the doorway and jumped into the air. He landed next to us and walked to my right. I laid my hand against him and tried to memorize the way we were walking.

A few minutes later the elf stopped outside a large building. "Rider, you go in here to eat. Dragon, you go up there to eat." He said as he pointed at a large cave opening up on the cliff above the eating building for me. "There is not enough room for the riders and dragons to eat at the same table so we must split them up. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"No problem." I said to him. "Thank you." Then I turned to Blugun and said "Well, see you later."

_Don't get into any trouble._

"If either of us gets in trouble it will be you." I told him. I laughed and he laughed with me. Then we split up and went to eat.

I walked in to the noisy building and the room instantly grew quiet. I looked around for the place to get the food and saw it clear on the other side of the room. I walked through the painfully silent room with all eyes on my back.

I grabbed a plate and got some fruit and then went to an empty table with my back to everybody. I ate quietly, and eventually the conversations picked back up.

When I was finished, I stood up and again the room went silent. I put my plate with the rest of the dirty dishes and left the room.

Once I was outside, I sagged against the wall and just waited for the tremors to go away. I hated being the new kid in anything. People always stare at you like you had done something wrong.

I sent my mind up to Blugun and saw that he was still eating so I sat down on the ground and waited for him to finish.

A waited for less than a minute for Blugun, but instead three boys came out of the building. They saw me sitting there and stared at me.

"Who are you?" the tallest of them asked.

"My name is Josh. What's yours?"

"Something you don't need to know. Where is your dragon?" he asked me.

Before I could answer, the boy on the left said with a snicker "I bet he doesn't have a dragon."

Before I could say that I did, the boy on the right said "Yeah, you don't have a dragon do you?"

"Ha! On the island of the dragon riders and no dragon. You are pathetic."

The next interruption I was glad of. Blugun dropped from the sky like a stone and landed in front of me in a cloud of dust.

I climbed to my feet and patted Blugun's shoulder and said "Boys, this is my dragon. His name is Blugun."

"If this is your dragon then where is your gedwëy ignasia?" the boy on the left asked.

"On my right hand. My arm was injured during our flight and I must not take the bandages off of it so if you were hoping to see it you will be disappointed."

The boys laughed and the left leaped forward to grab me. I had absolutely no training in fighting so I couldn't do anything to fight off the boy holding me down. The two others leaped on me as well. Blugun wanted to help but he couldn't attack without hurting me as well.

The boys started to tear off my bandages, quickly revealing my arm. The boys stopped tearing and just stared. Now that they were still, Blugun had a clear shot. He hit them all in the back with his tail and sent them flying. I leapt on his back and he took off for our room.

We went inside and I lit a few candles. I inspected the ruined bandages and saw that they were beyond repair. I tore off the remains and threw them away. I searched the two unopened rooms and found an empty closet, and an elven style wash tub.

I turned on the warm water in the tub, undressed and slid into the soothing water. It slowly relaxed me, helping me to clear my head. After a bit, I climbed out, dried off with one of the towels that were next to the tub, then I got dressed in some sleeping clothes and climbed into bed.

I watched Blugun climb into his bed then curl up. He was asleep in seconds. I followed his example and curled up in a comfortable position and quickly fell asleep.

I awoke the next morning to soft knocking on my door. I sat up and stretched. I stood up from my bed and sent my mind out through the door. It took me several seconds to recognize Eragon's mind. I hurried to my door, brushing my hair into place then I opened the door and stepped aside for Eragon to come in.

He walked in slowly, keeping his gaze averted from my draconian arm. He sat on the edge of my bed and dropped his chin into his hand. "Will one of you two please explain why I had three other riders injured last night with broken ribs?"

I stepped forward and bowed my head. "The boys were trying to look at my arm. I didn't want them to so I tried to fight back. But the three of them overpowered me and as soon as Blugun got the chance to get them off of me he did. He hit them in the back with his tail. We are sorry for the trouble we have caused. If you exile us from the island we will go without complaint."

"You two aren't in trouble. I just wanted to know the truth. The boys said that you and Blugun ganged up on them. Those three are trouble makers and I didn't believe a word they said. I knew you would tell the truth so I came to you."

"Why didn't you just get them to say it in the ancient language?" I asked him.

"Because those three are behind in brain power. They are good with hand to hand fighting, but are bad with magic and the ancient language."

"Oh. When will my classes start?" I asked Eragon.

"Tomorrow, hopefully. I will send a rider by here tomorrow to show you the way." Then Eragon got up and walked to the door. Before he left he said to me, "There is no need to hide your arm. It shows the struggle you had to go through to get here. It would even be considered an insult to some to hide it because it is a token of your journey. Keep it unwrapped, let it be revealed. Take pride in the struggle you had to go through. Farewell." Then he left the room, leaving me to ponder over what he said.

"Do you think I should leave it out?" I asked Blugun as I stared at my arm while I moved my fingers.

_Yes. What Eragon said is the truth. It should be shown with pride, not hidden because of its strange appearance._Even with how young Blugun was, his words were laced with wisdom.

I sighed in acceptance and said "Fine. I won't cover it up."

_Good. The sooner you get used to it the better._

"Do you know when breakfast is?"

Blugun shook his head.

"Very well. I guess we just have to go over there and see." I said as I started getting dressed.

I slipped on a pair of brown cotton pants, a white shirt and my leather boots.

I left the room and went outside. I mostly remembered where the food hall was, but I had to check Blugun's memory when I forgot which way to go.

I soon arrived at the eating hall and walked inside. It was almost empty. Just a few people here and there. I pulled my arm out from behind me and walked up to the dwarf that was wearing an apron.

I asked her "Excuse me ma'am, could you please tell me when breakfast is served?"

She pulled her black hair into a bun then turned around. Thanks to the angle I was standing, she couldn't see my arm.

"Yes I can." He voice was sweet and gentle. Just like Mom's. "It starts being served in about a half hour. Not that many people are up at this time of the day. You mind telling me what you are doing up?"

"I had a talk with Eragon." I told her.

"Oh, you the boy that had his dragon attack the three boys last night?" she asked accusingly.

"No ma'am. Those three ganged up on me and Blugun helped me to get away." I told her.

"I knew it was those three that started it. If they keep at it then Eragon will kick them off of the island for sure. Good riddance if you ask me. This island is supposed to be the training grounds for young riders, but those three just make trouble wherever they go."

"I can't stand bullies. I think it would be good for them to leave the island as well." I told the dwarf woman.

"You seem like a very nice young lad. Tell me, what is your name?"

"Josh Calvinsson, ma'am." I told her.

"Well my name is Holga and it was a pleasure to meet you, Josh." Holga said as she walked back into the kitchen.

I went to a table and waited for the food to be set out. Holga came out with a cart that had several trays on it that were piled high with food. She set them onto the food table then went back to the kitchen and returned with the plates and silverware.

I got up and grabbed some food then sat down and ate. When I was done I put my plate with the dirty dishes and left the eating hall.

Halfway back to my room a group of kids came around a corner and almost bumped into me. I was about to say excuse me but then I saw who they were. I tried to run but the three boys grabbed me and pulled me down to the ground. They started wailing on me with their fists and feet. I brought my scaly arm up to defend myself and I felt and heard three fists hit it. The crack of bones sounded through the air and the sound was followed by cries of pain from the boys. I got up and hurried off to my room, leaving the boys rolling around in the dirt.

When I got back to my room Blugun asked me what had happened. I showed him the memory of it and he started laughing.

_So they hurt themselves trying to hurt you? That is hilarious!_He started laughing and I joined in. We laughed for at least three minutes. It was very funny, at least until I heard knocking at the door.

We stopped laughing immediately and I spread out my mind to see who was there. It was Eragon, followed by three people I really didn't want to see.

I opened the door and stepped aside so they could come in. I glared at the three boys as they came in, each one of them with a bandage on their right hand.

"Josh, tell me what happened." Eragon said as he sat down on the bed.

"These three came around a corner while I was walking to my room then they pulled me down to the ground and started hitting and kicking me. I held up my arm to protect myself and then they hit my arm and broke their hands." I told him.

Eragon nodded and then said "That is the exact opposite of what they told me. They said that you had come around the corner, pulled them to the ground, then using magic held them down. Then you used your dragon arm and smashed their hands. But, I could see from the way the bones had broken that they had been in fists while they were broken." He turned to the three boys and spoke in the ancient language. The boys were forced down to their knees in front of me. "Tell him that you are sorry." Eragon told them.

None of them spoke. "If you don't say it, then I will make you say it." Eragon told them.

Each one of them grumbled an apology. "Louder so I can hear you." He told them.

"Sorry." They all said.

"Much better. Now if any of you get in any kind of trouble again, you are going to be off of this island. And for punishment, unlike your ribs, nobody is allowed to heal your hands." The three started complaining but were quickly silenced with a look from Eragon. "The only person allowed to heal your hands, is Josh. So if you want your hands healed right now, you can beg him to heal them for you."

Not a single one of them said anything. The middle one was about to say something but he remained silent.

"Now that that is taken care of, we will leave you, Josh. A rider will be over in a bit to show you where your first class is being held." Eragon told me.

"What will be my first class?" I asked him.

"You will be learning how to use a sword. That draconian arm of yours will help to give you a better grip on the hilt so I think that you will do just fine." Then Eragon got up and left. The three boys quickly got up and followed.

After they left, I closed the door behind them. Then I looked to Blugun and asked him "Do you think that I should have told Eragon that I was left handed?"

_It doesn't really matter so no, I don't think you should have told him. Let him find it out for himself._ Blugun said to me.

I recalled the past few minutes and started laughing at the irony of the situation. Blugun sent a questioning strand of thought into my head so I explained to him what I found to be so funny.

"The simple fact that my bullies now have to ask me to heal their hands, it is hilarious, as is the fact that they broke their hands on my arm trying to hurt me." I said with breathless laughter.

Blugun joined in my merriment and laughed with me for the next few minutes.

After that we settled down and I went over to Blugun and leaned against him, thinking of the last bullies I had.

Those two boys had thought that they were tough so they had picked on me. I could have taken one of them on in one on one combat, but both of them attacked me at once at least once a week. But then Blugun hatched for me. The two boys had instantly backed off, as if they were afraid that I would kill them.

After my first three months of magic training, I could have killed them. I had quickly mastered lifting a pebble. The very first magic training all riders received. Eragon had insisted that lifting the pebble was the best magic for a beginner to practice with.

Because of this, I practiced non-stop with a pebble. After I was able to hold the pebble in the air for long periods of time, I switched the pebble out for a large rock.

After that, I focused on several pebbles all at once. A trick not many beginner riders could do. I used my new found talents to my advantage.

I chased around the bullies who had beaten me, constantly shooting pebbles at them. Hard enough to sting, but not hard enough to leave a bruise.

Afterwards, I was given my first lesson on how to use magic for good, not bad. I had seen the error of my ways then returned to the boys, this time apologizing to them. Then they apologized to me for bullying me. I had them given each of them a small dragon that I had shaped out of chunks of rock. They had thanked me many times and then I had left with my mother telling me that I had done the right thing.

I was brought out of my memories by someone knocking on my door.

I got up and went to the door. I opened it and saw a human in light leather armor.

The man was tall and well-built with short brown hair, brown eyes and deeply tanned skin.

The man looked at my arm, didn't say anything or become alarmed, and then he looked back up at me. "Are you Josh?" he asked me in a deep and rough voice.

"Yes sir. May I help you?" I asked him.

"My name is Samson. I will be your fighting instructor. Follow me and I will get you fitted for a blade." He said to me. "Your dragon may follow you. His first class does not start until after lunch." Then he turned around and started walking away at a brisk pace.

I hurried through the door to follow and Blugun went through his large door, closing it with his tail.


	2. Chapter 2

After maybe twenty minutes, we arrived at a large building full of weaponry and armor.

Samson brought out a length of rope with knots tied in it at even intervals. Samson measured me using the rope then wrote down all the measurements on a piece of parchment.

"Wait here." He said to me then went off through the maze of shelves that were full of weapons.

He returned several minutes later holding a stack of swords. He made me feel the hilt of each sword first, to see which one fit me the most. Six out of the eight swords he brought to me had well-fitting hilts.

Then I had to hold each sword up and test the balance and weight on each one to see which one suited me the best. Three out of the remaining six felt perfect.

Out of the remaining three, I chose a sword that had a simple yet elegant silver cross-guard, a light wood hilt, a round silver pommel that had an onyx set into it, and a long, slender, double sided blade.

"This sword was made in the elven fashion so it will not rust, chip, or become dull." Samson told me. "But don't think that means that you will not be learning how to sharpen a blade. Learning how to use a wet-stone is very important, almost as important as learning how to use a sword because if your sword is not sharp, then you might as well be swinging around a club."

"Yes sir." I said to him as I slid the sword into the scabbard that Samson had given me.

As I was putting the scabbard onto my belt, Samson said to me "You're a good kid. Most new riders are full of themselves and think that they know all about swords and how to sharpen them and care for them." Then he looked me over and said "Most of them think it is pointless to learn how to sharpen a sword when their own never dulls."

"Well I think it would be a valuable skill to learn." I told Samson as I buckled my belt. "For example, I might somehow be without my sword and all I would have is an old, rusted, beat up sword to use. Learning to care for a sword would be a very important skill to learn if it ever comes to that."

Samson looked me over again and said to me "You're a pretty smart kid. So," Samson said with a clap of his hands, "What kind of armor would you prefer? Light, medium, or heavy?"

"What would the medium armor be composed of?" I asked Samson.

"You would have some chain mail, gauntlets, greaves, boots and a helm." Samson told me.

"What of the heavy armor?" I asked him.

Samson was obviously enjoying my questioning. "For heavy armor, you would be given a suit of plate armor."

"I think I would prefer the medium armor." I told Samson.

Samson nodded and then left to find me some armor.

He returned several seconds later and asked me "What kind of shield would you prefer? A kite shield, round shield, a buckler?"

I interrupted him saying "A round shield will do fine."

Samson nodded and then hurried off.

While Samson was gone, I looked over at Blugun and saw him surrounded by people. I sent him a mental question and he answered back, _They are measuring me for armor._

_Are you almost done?_ I asked him.

_No._ he said back. _They just finished measuring my head and still have the rest of my body to go._

_So that means that you will be there for a while?_ I asked him.

_Sadly, yes. I will be here for a while. _Blugun said back to me.

Samson then returned with his arms full of armor and I moved my point of focus over to him.

Samson set the load of armor on the ground then pulled out the chain mail and handed it to me. I slipped it on. Then he handed me the gauntlets. They were leather with metal plates covering the back of the hand and forearm. I slipped those on as well, with slight difficulty with my draconian arm. Then Samson handed me the greaves and boots, which I quickly put on. Lastly, he handed me a helm. I fit it on my head then buckled the strap that held it on. I then moved around in the armor, testing it to make sure it fit well. I drew my sword to see if the armor got caught or something, but nothing happened. I then grabbed my shield and hefted it onto my arm. It was a little heavy, but I knew that with training, it would eventually feel as light as a feather.

I sheathed my sword and set down my shield. Then I removed my helm and held it at my side. Then I bowed to Samson and said "Thank you for all your help. It is greatly appreciated."

"You're welcome, young one." Samson said as he set a hand against my shoulder. "Now come, if we do not hurry then we will be late for class."

"Yes sir." I said as I began to take off my armor.

"Leave the armor on; you need to learn how to move in it." Samson said as he turned to the left. "I want you to run with me to the practice field. I wish to see what your speed is."

"Yes sir." I said as I set my helm back in place then picked my shield back up.

I stood next to Samson and waited for him to start running.

"Well get going!" Samson said to me.

"I can't sir. I don't know where it is." I told him.

Samson laughed and then pointed off a little to my left. "That way. I will be right beside you the entire time. Now run!" Samson yelled at me.

"Yes sir." I said as I started sprinting toward the direction Samson had pointed me towards.

After a couple minutes of running, I had to slow down. The armor was to heavy for me to continue running in.

"Sorry sir, but I have to slow down. I don't think I can continue at this pace." I told Samson, who was running beside me.

"Alright, go ahead and slow down. This was only a test run to see how far you can go with armor on." Samson said to me.

"Thank you sir." I said to him as I slowed down to a walk.

Samson led me the rest of the way to the practice fields.

When we got there, two other riders were there, practicing with their bows.

"Riders, meet your new classmate." Samson said as he pushed me toward the other two.

The rider on the left came up to me first.

He was an elf with long black wavy hair, bright green eyes, and a large smile. He wore a light leather cuirass, gloves and boots with nothing to protect his head except for a thin headband made of woven leather.

"Hi, my name's Mando, but you can call me Manny." The elf said with a flowing accent as he bowed to me.

"My name is Josh. It's a pleasure to meet you." I said as I bowed back. "It's been awhile since I last saw an elf that didn't use the traditional greeting." I said to Manny.

"Yeah, they've always bored me so I almost never use them." Manny said to me, making me laugh a little.

Then the other rider came up to me and said to me "Hi, my name is Claire." Then the human bowed to me.

I bowed back, saying to that my name was Josh.

"Alright, now we have gotten the formalities out of the way, how about we start class?" he said to us. "Josh, how good are you with a bow?"

"I'm decent." I told him.

"Good, now grab a bow and a quiver from that table over there and start shooting." Samson said as he pointed to a table that was to my left.

I nodded and said "Yes sir." Then I hurried over to the table and grabbed a bow and quiver. I slid the quiver over my armor and then grabbed the bow in my right hand. As I turned around, I caught Manny and Claire looking at my arm.

Manny and Claire went back to practicing so I went over to another empty target and started practicing.

Most of my arrows hit the ring around the center and in the center by the time I ran out of arrows in my quiver.

I then went and retrieved my arrows and continued practicing, slowly getting better with each shot. Halfway through the shooting practice Blugun returned with a smile and told me that his armor would be done in a few days.

By the time I was told that it was time for lunch, I had gone through three quivers of arrows and had hit the center of the target seven times out of twelve. Manny, was hitting the center with every shot and Claire was having the same amount of progress as me.

I laid the bow back down on the table, followed by the quiver I had grabbed. I then followed my fellow riders as they led the way to the eating hall.

While we walked, Blugun asked me, _Where are the other rider's dragons?_

_I don't know, I'll ask them._ I said back to him.

"Manny, where is your dragon?" I asked the elf.

"Wendur is possibly at lunch right now. He stayed back in the room today. He didn't have anything better to do." Manny said to me.

"Claire, how about yours? Where is your dragon?" I asked her.

"Luna is most likely at lunch as well. Though she may also be taking a bath. She likes her scales to be nice and clean that way the silver color of them shines like a star." Claire said to me.

As she said silver, I remembered seeing the silver dragon on top of the building I was staying in.

"Where are you two staying?" I asked them.

Manny pointed off to my left and said "I'm over there. I've got the middle floor of my building."

"My building is over there as well. I've got top floor." Clair said to me.

"Huh, I've got the bottom story of my building." I told them. "Maybe we are all in the same building."

"The three of you are all in the same building." Samson said to us. "That's how the training works. We wait until we have a full building until we start the training. You guys are lucky that you all came here close to the same time. We once had a building with two riders in it for a whole month until a third rider finally came. This way of making a team helps us to train you all at the same pace without having to start from the beginning every time a new rider comes."

"That's pretty smart." Manny said to Samson.

"Yeah, it sure is. Eragon thought of it. The only flaw in it is when it takes a while for the rest of the new riders to come." Samson said to us.

"How long have you been here Manny?" I asked him.

"Only about five days." Manny said. "What about you Claire?"

"About a week." She said to him.

After several minutes of walking in silence, I asked Claire "How good are you with magic, Claire?"

"I'm decent. I can cast simple spells, heal cuts and bruises, light a fire, throw rocks, basic novice skills." She said to me.

"How about you, Manny?" I asked him.

"Well I'm an elf so I'm naturally gifted with magic. I can shoot off several fire balls, heal broken bones, skry, enhance my hearing, many other things as well. What about you Josh?" Manny asked me.

"Almost the same as Claire, but I can also shape rock into other things. I once changed two rocks into dragon sculptures." I said to them.

"Cool, who taught you?" Manny asked me.

"A human rider, his name is Septimus. He is this old, friendly rider. Of course, he looks young, but I think he is almost three hundred years old. He taught me a lot. His dragon, Gunder, is a gold dragon and shines like the sun. Gunder and Septimus taught Blugun and I a lot. Septimus was like the dad I never had." I said to my friends as fond memories training with Septimus went through my mind. "Septimus was undoubtfully one of the best riders ever."

"He sure was." a man said from behind me.

I looked around and saw that it was Eragon.

Claire and Manny dropped to their knee and I quickly did the same.

"Septimus was one of my best students. It is good to know that he is still teaching young riders." Eragon said to us. "Septimus was one of the first new riders I had after I took down Galbatorix. You were wrong about Septimus' age; he is almost five hundred years old. He was the tenth or thirteenth new rider."

"That would explain why he is so smart." I said to Eragon.

"Yeah, it most certainly does." Eragon said. "Well, I guess I had better let you get on your way. Farewell young riders." Eragon said as he walked away.

"I can't believe I got to meet Eragon again!" Manny said as he shivered with excitement. "Eragon is the most powerful rider ever and he just spoke to us!"

"Why are you so excited?" I asked him.

"Because Eragon is my role model. The most powerful rider ever. He helped to free our people from Galbatorix and then established the new order of riders. He is without a doubt the best guy in the world!" Manny said as he jumped up and down.

I looked over to Claire and she seemed just as surprised as I was to see Manny like this. Then I looked to Samson and saw that he wasn't surprised. _I guess he gets people like this all the time._

We continued on our way to the eating hall and reached it after several minutes. We walked in and I followed Manny and Claire as they went and got food. Then I hesitated to follow them to a table that already had several groups of kids sitting at it. I started to walk over to a table that had nobody at it but Manny pulled me towards the table that had others at it instead.

The other riders at the table stared at my arm as I ate but I ignored the stares and focused on eating my food until it was all gone. Then I got up and put my empty plate with the rest of the dirty dishes. On my way out of the room, I saw the three boys that had bullied me. all three had their backs to me but I could tell it was them because they were had their right hands down at their sides and were trying to eat with their left hands with varying levels of success.

I laughed at their predicament then left the eating hall.

I waited outside for my teammates and Blugun to exit then I followed them as they led the way to the next class. Along the way, I started noticing that I barely saw any dwarf or Urgal riders. I asked Manny and Claire about that and Claire was the one to answer.

"All the riders try to keep to their own races except the humans and elves." Claire said to me. "I don't know why, but they just do. I think they just want to be near their own kind or other people who look like them or feel like them."

"Makes sense." I said to her. "Plus, if we mixed with the Urgals then there would be countless fights because of how aggressive Urgals are." I said as I started thinking things over.

"I hadn't thought of that." Claire said as she looked back at me.

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the magic training grounds.

An elf stood in the middle of a field with her arms crossed and her long silver hair was tied into a bun. She had four chairs around her and a table set off to her right that held a stack of mugs and a metal pitcher.

When we reached her she said "Welcome students. My name is Silina and you will refer to me as Master, or Ebrithil. Take a seat and your instruction will begin." Then she sat down in the chair that was closest to her. We all took a seat as well. "I already know your names, but not your true names. Your true names will remain hidden from everyone, including yourselves. Of course that can't be helped when it comes to you, Mando. Like all other elves you already know your true name so I must ask you not to let anybody else know it, not even your best friend."

"Yes, Ebrithil." Manny said to Silina.

"Any questions?" our teacher asked us. We all shook our heads. "Good, help yourself to the juice, I will be back soon." Then she got up and left.

I stood up and went to get a mug of juice then I sat back down, and waited patiently. Manny also waited patiently. Claire on the other hand, had a few troubles. She was unable to sit still so she started to tap her foot, shake her leg, tap her knee, then finally she started pacing. After ten minutes of pacing, Silina returned and sat down.

"Claire, may I see your weapon?" Silina asked her.

Claire pulled out a dagger from gods know where and offered it to Silina hilt first.

As the dagger was passed, I got a good look at it. It was a simple dagger made of steel, the cross guard was silver and had a hook on each end of it. The hilt was made of dark wood and the pommel was a simple piece of round silver metal that held a diamond the size of a robin's egg.

"Now could you come closer for a few seconds?" Silina asked Claire. Claire hesitated for a few seconds then she scooted her chair closer to her teacher. Silina gently placed a hand against Claire's head, confusing her student. Then Claire suddenly stiffened up and Silina pressed the diamond in Claire's dagger against her hand and after several seconds Claire relaxed. Then Silina passed the dagger back to Claire and then Claire hurried back to her original position.

"What did you do?" Manny asked our teacher.

Claire answered instead. "She helped me be more patient."

Manny continued to dig for more information, but Claire refused to let Manny know more. Unlike Manny I didn't need an explanation because I had seen the same thing done before many times, and I did the same thing too when I got excited.

I sent out a tendril of my thought over to Claire and knocked on the barriers that surrounded her mind. I told her who I was then she dropped her barriers and let me in. _I know what Ebrithil did to you. I do the same thing when I get to excited._ I said to her through my mind.

_I never knew that I could send my energy into another object. _Claire said to me through our mind link.

_It is pretty amazing. The ring I usually put my energy in is back in my room. I forgot to grab it today. _I said to her. _My old tutor, Septimus, taught me about it. The best things to channel your energy are precious gems such as rubies, diamonds, sapphires, those kinds of things. My ring has a dark sapphire in it. It was a gift from Septimus when I started my lessons with him. You should get a ring as well._

_I'll be sure to get one. _Claire said to me. _Well, I think we should stop ignoring Manny; he is starting to get frantic._

I looked over at the elf and saw that he was indeed getting frantic. He was almost shouting to get our attention. I pulled out of Claire's mind and then shrunk back into my own. Then I started calming down Manny by telling him that I had been deep in thought about what Silina had done. He believed my story about why I hadn't been paying attention but didn't believe the story that Claire told him, that the effects of what Silina had done to her were still over her.

Silina just sat there watching us as we squabbled. But after maybe ten minutes of sitting she muttered a word and all three of our bodies froze up; none of us could move a single centimeter.

"I grow bored of watching you three fight over such a simple thing. Mando, I ordered Claire to not tell anybody of what I had done to her; that is why she didn't tell you what I had done. Now, I want each of you to go to the nearby stream and pick up a rock, and then bring it back here. I want to see how proficient each of you are with simple magic before we start to learn the next level of magic."

After Silina spoke another word, the three of us were released from her spell. "Where is the stream, Ebrithil?" Claire asked Silina.

Silina pointed off to her left and said "The stream is over there. Hurry back."

The three of us found the stream easily and then we all found a stone roughly the same size of a marble; then we returned to our teacher and sat back down.

Silina then said to us "Good, now I want all of you to hold the stone up in the air for as long as you can."

We each spoke the two words in the ancient language and three stones were quickly in the air. We then held the stones in the air. After more than twenty minutes of holding the stones in the same positions Silina finally let us drop the stones and we did so with a sigh of relief. We weren't tired, we were just bored.

"Alright, it is pretty obvious that you can hold your concentration for a while. Now I want to see your strength." Then with a rumbling, three large rocks emerged from the ground in front of us. Each one was as tall as my waist and as wide as my torso. "I want each of you to raise a rock as high as you can."

I concentrated on the rock in front of me and then whispered "Stenr risa." Slowly the stone lifted into the air, as did the other two stones. This was the biggest stone I had ever lifted, and it was draining on my strength quickly.

When I could no longer hold the rock up, I let it drop to the ground with a loud thud. Claire's rock dropped a few seconds later. Manny's rock stayed in the air for a while longer then it to fell back to the ground.

"Very good." Silina said to us. "You three did better than I expected." Then after a few muttered words the stones sunk back into the ground. "Now, I want to see how well you can read the ancient language." Then Silina took out several scrolls from a bag she wore at her waist and handed each of us one of the scrolls. "I want each of you to read this to yourselves then you are to tell me about the story it tells."

For the next hour, the three of us read the scrolls as the sun slowly sunk in the sky. Silina called for us to stop reading and then she told Claire to talk about the story that was on her scroll. Claire said that her scroll spoke of a young elf who had been denied his heritage and then had left his family home in search of some way to prove to his family that he was worthy of his heritage. The elf had traveled across all of Alagaesia in search, and had finally found what he searched for in the form of an ancient treasure that lay hidden deep within a cave buried deep in the Hadarac desert. "That was as far as I could get before you told us to stop reading." Claire said to Silina.

"Very good, Claire. Mando, now it is your turn. What did your scroll speak of?" Silina asked the elf.

Manny's scroll had the story of an old creature, the first and last of his kind; part human, part animal; human form with animal traits. A creature that dated back to far before the time of the riders. The creature had been searching for a place where he could live without the fear of being attacked by the regular humans. The creature had spent almost its entire life searching, but never found a home. With it's dying breath, it had cast a spell, the first and last spell it had ever used. The spell formed a cavern around the creature, a place where it's remains would remain undisturbed. With it's dying breath, it had created the home that it had been searching for. "I barely managed to finish the scroll." Manny said to Silina.

"You are a very fast reader, but that is to be expected. Josh, tell us of the story that your scroll held." Silina said as she looked at me. I nodded and then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I started unraveling the tale that I had read.

My scroll spoke of a dragon, newly hatched from her egg. Her scales a beautiful dark purple color. The hatchling had hatched from her egg alone, no parents around her to care for her. Unknown to the hatchling, her parents had been killed in the last elven attack. The hatchling stayed where she had hatched, eating berries and small animals she managed to catch. After a month of waiting, the hatchling went off in search of her parents, only to find the trees around her covered in scorch marks, jagged tears going through the trees and earth, and the bodies of dragons covering the ground. The hatchling knew not what to do, so she started wandering until she came across the Hadarac desert. The purple dragon, now almost a year old, traveled across the desert and got caught in a sand storm. She found refuge in a cave she found that had been uncovered by the sand. In the large empty cave, she found the bones of a creature, neither human nor animal in the center of the cave. The dragon sensed that this was a very special place, one where she shouldn't tread but the sand storm prevented her from leaving. The dragon waited for many hours for the storm to abate, but it didn't cease. So the dragon slept until it was safe to leave the cave. The dragon, using magic that she was not aware of, then suspended her body between living and non-living, keeping her in a state in which she didn't need to eat or drink, but she also did not grow. She stayed like this for many years. One day, an elf dug his way into the cave shedding light into the ancient cavern for the first time in very many years. The elf had come seeking treasure, but instead found a purple dragon curled around a malformed skeleton. When the elf tried to rouse the dragon, she did not stir, for it was still unsafe to leave the cave. But, when the elf touched the dragon he saw the life of the dragon through her eyes. The same happened when he knelt next to the bones of the skeleton. Just like the dragon before him, the elf felt that he shouldn't be within the cavern, unlike the dragon he was able to leave and so he left and returned home with no treasure, with nothing more than a story. The elf's family believed him and then they all went in search of the ancient cavern, but it had once again been buried deep in the sand. "The dragon still lies within this cavern, waiting for the day when she will be able to leave." I concluded. "All of our stories tied together with each other's, but why? Who wrote these?" I asked Silina.

"The family of elves wrote these." Silina said to us.

"So you mean that there is a dragon out there under the sand?" I asked Silina.

Silina nodded and then she said "Yes, but none could find her. That is why many people no longer know of this story. These scrolls were recently brought to the island; you are the first team to read them. And you will be the only team to read them."

"Why will nobody else read them?" Manny asked.

"Because, these are your homework. I want each of you to finish reading the scrolls. Then you will trade and read a different scroll, then you will trade again and read the last scroll. Then the three of you are to rewrite each scroll in our own language." Silina then looked to the sky, and at the ever lowering sun. "That will be all for today. I expect you all to have at least read each of the scrolls by the end of the week. Farewell." Then Silina walked away.

"Well, that sure was an enjoyable class." Claire said to us as we made our way to the eating hall. We walked for several minutes in silence. As we walked, I thought about the dragon buried beneath the sand.

"Do you guys think that she will be able to wake up now?" I asked my team mates.

"What, are you talking about the dragon from the story?" Claire asked me. I nodded and then she said "I don't know, but it is possible. To bad we can't go and look for her."

"Yeah, I really want to find her so that she can be with her own kind." I said to Claire.

"Well, maybe once we finish our training we can goad n look for her." Manny said as he looked back at me.

"How long will that be?" I asked him.

"If we do it right, at least ten years. If not, then fifteen years." Manny told me.

"Fifteen years?!" I asked the elf.

"Yeah, it is quite a ways away but it will be a pretty cool first mission." Manny told me.

"But what if by then something bad happens to her? Like the cavern collapses and she gets buried in sand? Or a bunch of thieves find the cavern and then take her away and use her as a trophy?" I asked him.

"Wow, you are really worried about her." Manny said to me.

I sighed and said "Yeah, I am." After that we walked in silence and then we ate in silence, each of us engrossed in our own thoughts. Then when we were done eating, we left the hall and then went on our way to our building.

When we got there, I saw the silver dragon perched on the roof and the head of a brown dragon was sticking out of the second floor's large window. There was a long line of introductions, in which I learned that Claire's dragon was named Luna and Manny's dragon was named Wendur. After the introductions were made, we all said good night to each other and then we went to bed.

That night, I dreamed of a purple dragon with black horns and violet eyes; the dragon stood guard over a pile of sand and dirt that was in the ground in front of her. Around the dragon was a cavern that had cracks running along the roof. The cracks let in light that then glinted off of the dragon. Then, the dragon spoke to me. "When you go seeking, you will find what you have sought after, but what you will be seeking will change over the course of your journey." Then the dragon closed her eyes, breathed a violet flame over the sand pile in front of her, then the rest of my dream was filled with the sight of a sleeping purple dragon with an ever burning purple flame in front of her.


	3. Chapter 3

I awoke with a slight headache as somebody shook me awake. I opened my eyes and saw Manny and Claire looking down at me. I groaned and sat up in bed. I looked around and saw that my bed was busted, and the bedside table was smashed to the size of matchsticks.

"What happened?" I asked my teammates.

They looked at each other and then down at me. Then Claire said to me "You were using magic, in your sleep." I looked up at her with a blank stare. "I don't know how, but somehow you were using magic in your sleep. You were also speaking in the ancient language. It was really fast and complicated, not even Manny could understand what you were saying and he was raised around the language."

"I managed to catch a few words but the rest I couldn't decipher. And you kept repeating one of the words over and over, but again it was complicated and I can't quite remember what it was." Manny said to me. "One of the words that I managed to understand was you saying help over and over again. What were you dreaming about?"

I was silent for a few seconds, I looked down at my arm then I said "The dragon. I dreamt about the dragon buried underneath the sand." I flexed my hand and watched the scales shift. With my imagination, I saw the scales on my arm turn the same shade of purple as the buried dragon's scales.

"What do you mean, what was she doing in your dream?" Claire asked me.

I took a deep breath and said "She told me 'When I go seeking, I will find what I have sought after, but what you will be seeking will change over the course of the journey.' Those were her exact words. There is something going on here, and I have to find out what." I said to them as I clenched my hand into a fist.

Blugun entered my mind and then said to me, _You have some kind of connection to the dragon. I couldn't sense it before, but now I do. It is like a second mind is connected to yours. Can you not feel it?_

_No, I can't. _ I said back to Blugun.

_Well it is there, it is very faint but it is there. Whoa, the mind just disappeared, as soon as I tried to touch it the mind vanished, like smoke being blown away by the wind._ Blugun said to me as he sent a mental image to me of a column of smoke being blown away in the wind.

"Claire, Manny, Blugun just told me that there was a mind attached to my own. I didn't feel it, but Blugun said that as soon as he felt the mind it disappeared. Blugun said to me that he thinks that the mind belongs to the dragon." I said to my friends. They looked at me with amazed gazes.

"Do you really think that is even possible?" Claire asked me.

Manny answered her question and said "Yeah, it is possible. Oromis contacted Eragon from a great distance while he was healing from the great battle of Farthen Dur. It is possible that the dragon did indeed contact you Josh."

"Wow, the dragon actually spoke to you. What was it like?" Claire asked me.

I looked up from my hand and at my friends. "Well, in my dream we were in the cave from the story and in front of the dragon was a pile of sand and dirt. I'm guessing that the skeleton was buried underneath the sand. It was cold in there, and there was a slight breeze, I could tell because some of the grains of sand were moving across the floor. Then she spoke to me and told me what I told you earlier. Then she lit the sand on fire with purple flames, then she curled around the fire and fell asleep. Then she just continued to sleep. Then you guys woke me up."

"Wow, so what do we do now?" Manny asked me.

"I don't know." I told him. "I guess we try and figure out more about the dragon and more about the cave and the skeleton. Try and figure out as much information as we can in order to figure out the exact location of her cave that way we can save her."

"But what will we do once we save her?" Claire asked me.

I thought it over for several seconds then said "We bring her back here, to the island so she can learn from Saphira and the other elder dragons."

"Guys, you are both forgetting a very large problem." Manny said to us.

"What is it?" Claire asked.

"We still have to finish our training before we can leave the island to do missions. Our training could still take years until it is over with." I looked back down at my hand as I realized that he was right.

I looked back up at Manny and asked him "Is there any way to get out of here early?"

Manny thought it over and then he said "We can only get out of here early if Alagaesia has a desperate need for riders and all the teachers are already sent out. But in order for us to be sent out, we must first be at least rank three students."

"Is there any way for us to go up in rank before the end of the year?" I asked him.

"Of course, we have to excel at all our subjects. Not just us, but also our dragons." Manny said to us. "So, we will have to study hard, and fight hard that way we can be the best fighters on the island and the best spellcasters on the island. Of course we may never be as good as Eragon, but we can still try."

"Blugun, how have your classes been so far?" I asked the dragon.

I felt Blugun open his mind to Claire and Manny then he said to the three of us _I have been having troubles breathing fire again. But my flying classes are going great. I'm one of the best flyers there. I'm a little unsteady when it comes to my fighting classes though. I'm always tripping on the ground while I'm trying to attack using my claws and fangs, plus I have been having troubles getting my tail in the right position to attack even though I did pretty good when you were being attacked._

"Luna can help you with the fire breathing and attacking with your claws. She is also pretty fast on land. Did you see her training while you were there?" Claire said to Blugun.

_Yeah, I saw her. She is very quick, not just with running but also with her claws and her fire burns long and hot. I would be honored if she would tutor me._ Blugun said to Claire.

Claire was silent for several seconds then she said to Blugun "Luna says that she will help you, and that your first lesson begins in a few minutes. She said that Wendur would also like some lessons in flying and fighting as well. You three will be meeting somewhere. Luna says to open your mind to her so she doesn't have to use me as a messenger."

Blugun nodded then I felt his mind open up and I felt Luna's mind connect to his. _Follow me once you get outside._ Luna told Blugun.

_I will be going now. See you three later._ Blugun said as he stood up from his bed and went to his large door. He opened it and then he left the room, closing it behind him.

I heard the flapping of wings as Blugun took off, followed by the sound of a couple pairs of wings joining him. I stretched out my mind and followed Blugun as he flew away. as I continued expanding my mind to follow him, I encountered three more minds, ones that I really didn't want to talk to. I quickly shrunk back into my own head and then got out of bed.

"I'm going to get dressed, could you please leave?" I asked my friends.

"Yeah, we will be going now." Manny said as he left the room. Claire followed him and then with a wave she left the room. I went over to the closet where I had left my clothes and dug out a pair of light brown leather pants and a short white tunic. I got dressed quickly then slipped on a black leather jerkin. Then I went to my bedside table and searched around for my ring. I found it against the wall and behind the bed. I slipped it on and then waited by my door for the three boys.

The wait was only a minute long before I heard one of them knock on my door.

I opened my door and saw all three of them down on one knee with their heads bowed. The boy in the middle, his shaggy brown hair covering his face said to me "The three of us are very sorry for what we did. We beg you to heal our hands."

"Enter." I said to the three of them as I walked to the center of my room. The boys stood up, holding their right hands closely, and walked into my room. I grabbed the one chair in my room that I hadn't broken in my sleep and sat in it.

The three boys looked at the damage with surprised looks. I brought their attention back to me by loudly clearing my thought. "So why do you want me to fix your hands? Do you want me to fix them so you can beat up other defenseless riders?"

"No," the brown haired boy said, "we need you to heal our hands so we can continue our training with swords and bows."

"Well, it looks more like you three need to focus more on training your minds, and not your bodies." I said to them.

They hung their heads and didn't say anything. "Let me see your hands." I said to them. They held out their right hands and I sent out my mind and I looked inside their hands and saw that the bones were slowly mending.

"If I heal you, do you three promise never to hurt another defenseless person?" I asked them. All three nodded then I said "Good, now don't move." I said to them. Then under my breath I whispered the words for healing.

Slowly the bones started mending, the cracks flowed together, the small shards and slivers moved back into place, and finally the infection that had been working it's way ito their bodies went away. halfway through the spell I had to dip into the reserve I held in my ring for energy.

Once I was done healing all three hands I looked up at them and said "It is done. There was an infection working it's way through you guys so I got rid of that as well."

"Thank you, Josh." The brown haired kid said. Then all three of them bowed to me and left. I stayed sitting in my chair, trying to regain some energy after using so much in the spell, for several minutes until I heard someone knocking on my door. I sent out a tendril of my mind and saw that it was Manny.

I stood up from my chair and went to the door. I opened it and Manny said to me "It's time for breakfast, you ready to eat?"

"Not yet, I need to grab my boots then I will be ready." I said to Manny. I reached down and grabbed my boots from beside the door and slipped them on. "Now I'm ready." I said to the elf. We left the building and I asked him "Where is Claire?"

"She went looking for the dragons." Manny said to me.

"Oh, yeah I was wondering about them as well." I said as we continued walking down the wide road. The road had several other riders on it, all heading for the eating hall, and all were also staring at my arm again.

After a few more minutes of walking we reached the eating hall. Manny and I walked in, got a plate, got food then sat down to eat. After fifteen or so minutes passed by we walked out of the eating hall and started walking back to our rooms.

Once we got back, Manny asked me "You wanna hang out on the roof before we have to start getting ready for our first class?"

"Sure, how do we get up there?" I asked him.

"We are usually supposed to fly but since our dragons are currently preoccupied we will have to use magic to reach up there." Manny told me. "Do you know any words that will get you up and on the roof?"

"Yeah, I know the word for rise." I told Manny.

"Alright, see you up there." Then he muttered under his breath and slowly rose into the air. I muttered risa and then I rose into the air as well. It was a tall building so it took some time and a lot more energy than I had anticipated. Again I had to dip into my ring for energy.

Once I reached the top of the building I saw Manny sitting on one of the four chairs that were sitting on the roof, underneath and large piece of canvas. I went and sat next to him and enjoyed the shade that the canvas gave us. The sun had gotten bright and hot during the walk back to our building and the shade felt heavenly.

Manny and I sat in silence for several minutes, but once I felt something slam against my mind I fought back and I saw Manny dong the same. He may not have moved but I could tell from his expression and the way he had tensed up that he was being attacked as well. But once I heard a voice in my mind I knew it wasn't an attack, it was a plea for help from Claire.

_We need you here! There is trouble!_ Then she sent us a vision of the way to where she was and then her mind receded from ours. Manny and I looked at each other then we bolted from our chairs and muttered a quick spell that would carry us to the ground.

We hurried into our rooms and quickly dressed in our armor. I buckled on my sword and then grabbed my shield and hurried along the path that Claire had shown me. Manny quickly shot past me and after a few seconds he disappeared around a corner. The armor was weighing me down but I continued to run despite the growing pain in my side and my labored breath. Again I drew energy from my ring and with new energy I sprinted down the path.

It took me several minutes but I found my way through a bunch of trees to a large clearing that had a gathering of dragons in it as well as Claire and Manny. Held underneath the paws of a large white dragon was Wendur, beneath the paws of a black dragon was Luna and being held down by three dragons was Blugun.

I hurried to my teammates and then asked them what was going on.

"We don't know, none of the dragons will tell us." Claire said to me.

I sent my mind out to Blugun and quickly felt five minds try to assault me. I hauled in my mind and then closed it off from the attack. "Why do you hold down our dragons?" I asked the dragons.

I felt another mind try to touch mine, this time it was non-threatening. I opened my mind to it and an old voice spoke to me and said _These dragons have trespassed on our land. They are not allowed here._

_Which of the dragons are you? _I asked the mind.

_None, I am coming now._ Then I heard the unmistakable sound of large wings flapping. Then a huge dragon rose above the trees to my left and the dragon slowly flew to us. He landed with a large thud, making the dirt fly up in a cloud and cover his green scaly legs. _Be grateful I am speaking to you, the only reason why I speak to you is because you have the smell of a dragon about you._

I held up my arm and the old dragon inspected it. _How?_ The dragon asked.

_It was an accident that happened while Blugun and I flew to the island a few days ago. I was severely injured and Blugun saved me using magic._ I said to him as I sent him the vision that Blugun had given me of him using his fire on my arm.

_Do not think that this excuses your dragon for trespassing on our land. If we release your dragons, do you promise to never return? _The dragon asked me.

"Yes, I promise." Then I repeated it in the ancient language.

The green dragon looked to the other dragons and after a few seconds they released Blugun, Luna, and Wendur from their grasp.

_What is so special about this land? _I asked the green dragon.

The dragon swung his large head back towards me and then said to me _this land is the land of the wild dragons, the dragons that are not bound to a rider. Even before this island was made poisonous, this land belonged to us. As do the caves that are over-looking the water fall that is near the cliff over there._ He said as he pointed a claw to my left.

I looked that way for a few seconds then said to him _I am truly sorry about Blugun and the others coming here. They were merely looking for a place to train so they can become stronger. We are on a mission, to save someone special and in order to do this we must all graduate from this island early._

_Who is it you are trying to save? _The dragon asked me.

Instead of speaking I showed him the memory of my dream with the purple dragon. When he saw her, his eyes widened, as did the eyes of the other dragons. _You seek her? The Amethyst Dragon?_

_You know of her?_ I asked him.

_Yes, follow me and I will tell you more._ Then he turned around and started to walk off in the direction he had said that the caves were.

_May my friends follow?_ I asked him.

The dragon looked back to me and nodded. Then he turned his head back to the front and continued walking towards the cave.

"Hurry, we have to follow him." I said to Manny and Claire. They followed without complaint and our dragons followed. I noticed with satisfaction that Blugun wasn't tripping. I looked ahead again just in time to duck underneath a low hanging branch, and take an even lower hanging branch in the face.

I stumbled and fell to the ground but was back up and on my feet in less than a second and continued running to keep up with the green dragon's long strides.

Before to long we reached a large cliff that over looked a lake with sheer cliff wall on all sides of it. On the far right, a waterfall was crashing into the lake from thousands of feet above. In the walls that surrounded the lake was countless caves. The green dragon jumped off the side of the cliff and flew into a cave that was on the opposite side of the lake.

I jumped on Blugun's back and held on tight to the spine in front of me as he jumped off of the side as well. Blugun opened his wings and he glided into the huge opening of the cave. Blugun gently landed and then walked over to were the green dragon was sitting.

After several seconds of waiting Luna and Claire glided in as well, followed by Wendur and Manny. All four dragon gather into a circle and then we riders got down and sat next to our dragons.

"Are you Arya's dragon?" Claire asked the dragon.

The dragon shook his head and then said to all six of us _My name is Gundro. I am the leader of the wild dragons. I was the very first wild dragon to hatch under Eragon's watch. Now you tell me, what do you know of the Amethyst Dragon._

"We read about her in a story." Manny told him. "We also read two other stories that were intertwined with her story."

"Last night, I saw her in my dreams. She spoke to me as well." Then I showed him and everyone else my entire dream, up until the point that she fell asleep.

_The Amethyst Dragon. While I was in my egg, my mother told me about her. My mother told me that the Amethyst Dragon was the last dragon egg that had been laid before we started getting attacked by your kind, Manfred. She was to be something special for our kind, I know not what. My mother never told me. Tell me of this story that you know. _Gundro said to us.

And so, we told Gundro of how we came to know about the purple dragon. Then we told him the other two stories and then we told him of how we wanted to save her from her cave and bring her here so she can live with her own kind.

For several minutes Gundro did not speak, but then he looked into my eyes and said _Your dragons have permission to practice on our land. They may use the clearing that we captured them in, but nowhere else. We dragons want her back just as badly as you do. So please find her and bring her back here._

I stood up and then bowed to him. Then speaking in the ancient language I said to him that no matter what happens we will find her and bring her back.

_Thank you, it will be good to have her among us. Go now, and become stronger that way you can return the Amethyst Dragon to us._ I bowed again, as did Claire and Manny. Then after a second our dragons joined in the bow. We straightened and then Gundro bowed his head to us and then we all got on the backs of our dragons and then we left his cave and soared over the lake and then turned in the general direction of the clearing of our first class.

After about five minutes of flying the clearing came into view and then Blugun, Wendur, and Luna all landed and we hopped off and then the dragons all took off and flew towards their own class.

I turned toward the clearing and saw Simon sitting on a small stool with his broad arms crossed.

"Not only are you late," Simon bellowed to us, "but one of you aren't even dressed properly. Would someone care to explain what happened to make you arrive in this state?"

I told Simon "We arrived late because our dragons had been practicing in a clearing that belonged to the wild dragons. Afterwards Gundro and I had a small chat and now the three of us and our dragons are allowed onto their land to practice."

"Gundro is a very territorial dragon. He does not let just anybody onto his land. Nor does he usually speak to trespassers." Simon told us.

I held up my right arm and said "He spoke to us because of my arm, and then we talked for a little longer and now we are friends with the wild dragons." I sent out my mind to Claire and Manny and said to them _do not speak of the Amethyst Dragon to Simon or anybody else. We must keep her a secret from others._

My teammates sent me their agreement and then I lowered my arm and asked Simon "So how much longer is left for today's lesson?"

"Only about five minutes. All you really have time for is some archery practice so get to it."

So until lunch we shot arrow after arrow, my aim slowly improving.

After we put our bows back on the table we went to the eating hall where a man was waiting for us. He wore a beautiful blue sword strapped to his waist, unlike the other times I had seen him. We knelt down in front of him and then Eragon said to us "You three should not have went onto the wild dragon's land, no matter how badly you wanted to train."

"How did you know?" I asked him.

"Not only does my mind reach far, but so do my informants." Eragon said back to me. "My informants also told me that you had a conversation with Gundro, and he then invited you to his cave. Every other rider and dragon, except for myself, Saphira and very few others, have gotten chased off of their land. I must warn you to be careful of where you go, there are many places on this island that are incredibly unsafe for young riders like you three." Then Eragon left and we stood up from our kneeling position.

"Damn, that was frightening." Manny said to us.

"Got that right." I replied. "Come on, lets go and eat." I said as I led the way inside the building.

We all got a plate and some food, went to the same spot that we ate breakfast at and then dug into the fruits and vegetables that we had grabbed.

A while later we came out of the eating hall and then walked to our second class. When we got there, Silina was nowhere in sight. I sent out my mind and found her walking through the trees. The three of us sat down and waited for her. It wasn't a long wait, but it was long enough for Claire to have to transfer her impatient energy into her dagger, twice.

Silina walked out of the trees that surrounded the clearing and then took a seat in her chair. Today she wore a bright blue dress with no sleeves on it. Her hair was pulled back into a bun again. From out of the bag she had slung over her shoulder, she pulled out three simple little gray rocks. She handed each one of us one, then pulled another out for herself.

"Today, I'm going to tell you about enchanting. I was going to have somebody else here, but it seems that has either lost her way or was to lazy to get here." Silina said as she looked around the clearing.

"Oh shut up will you?" a rough female voice called out from the edge of the trees. I looked over at the source of the voice and saw an elf woman. She wore a leather apron and the sleeves of her shirt were rolled up revealing muscled arms and small scars. "If someone is even a minute late you start insulting them and hurting their good name." the elf said as she walked over to us.

"Good to see you again, Rhunon." Silina said to the elf.

"It's good to see you as well." Rhunon said Silina. "So what was it that you asked me to be here for?" Rhunon asked Silina.

"I would like for you to explain to my students about how you enchant the swords, then I would like for you to teach them how to do a simple enchantment on the rocks that they are holding. My skills in enchanting are very rusty and I prefer for a professional to teach rather than someone like me who hasn't enchanted anything in the past hundred years." Silina said to Rhunon.

"Very well, it would be nice to teach some people about how I forge the swords before they try and do it themselves." Rhunon

"Excuse me, Ebrithil Rhunon, but did you say before we forge the swords?" Claire asked Rhunon.

"Yes, young rider." Rhunon said to Claire. "Very many years ago I swore an oath to never make another sword again, and I still hold onto the promise today. The way I make the swords for all the new riders is that I enter your mind and guide your hands as we forge the sword. It is the same way that I forged Brisingr, by using Eragon's body and then guiding him. But of course with Eragon there was quite a bit of magic used but that was only because he had to have the sword the next day. I still use magic in the forging process but not as much as I did with Eragon. The magic is what is used to enchant and imbue the sword with the qualities that they each contain." Rhunon explained to us in her rough voice.

I looked to Claire and saw her clinging onto each word that Rhunon said.

Rhunon murmured and held her hand over the ground, then a small pillar of rock rose out of the ground. Rhunon sat on the small pillar and then looked at the three of us mainly focusing on my arm. "When I forge the swords, I sing a spell. The same process is used when an elf sings a home out of a tree. It is a very old technique and only riders are allowed the knowledge of how it is done. The spell is complicated and requires a lot of energy but the outcome is always amazing."

"When will we be able to forge our swords?" Claire asked eagerly.

"When you are a few months away from graduation." Rhunon said to Claire.

"Are you still using brightsteel for the blades?" Claire asked Rhunon.

Rhunon nodded and said "I found a huge deposit of the metal here on Vroengard. I'm guessing that the pieces I had found in Du Weldenvarden were merely shards of the true star. The star had fallen here on Vroengard while the pieces of it fell all across Alagaesia."

"Wow, that is amazing." Manny said.

"Aye, it is amazing. I've been using the same shard of brightsteel for past three hundred years and I still haven't used the whole thing up." Rhunon said to us. "After I get through with that piece, I still have countless other chunks of the metal as well as the main part of the star. It will be a good long time before I have to start destroying the old swords of past riders for their metal."

"What? Why would you destroy the old swords?" Claire asked Rhunon.

"Because, eventually I will run out of brightsteel. It is non-renewable so I absolutely must have destroy the non-used swords for new swords." Rhunon explained to Claire.

"Oh." Claire said as she hung her head in embarrassment.

"You really like swords, don't you?" Rhunon asked Claire.

"Yes, Rhunon-elda, I do." Claire said to her.

"Hm, well I think that it is time for me to tell you about how to enchant an item." Rhunon said to us. Claire raised her head and smiled a little. "This is going to be a long lesson and might drag on until tomorrow. All three of you are to listen to every word I say, and do everything I tell you to do. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ebrithil." We chorused.

The rest of the class was spent with Rhunon telling us about how to enchant items, all the different kinds of ways to enchant, and all the different kinds of enchantments that could go on an item. When we ended class, our brains were full to the brim of information and we were mentally exhausted.

We quickly ate our dinner at the eating hall and then went back to our building and then we all wearily went to bed and were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

**I would like to thank everybody for reading this story so far and I really hope that you have enjoyed it so far. The three boys that bullied Josh, I need help with them. I'm having writers block about them and all I could think to do about them was describe one of them with shaggy brown hair. If you could please take time out of your day to send me your own descriptions of the three boys then it would be greatly appreciated. If you do, then I need first and last name, hair color, body structure, dragon color, and name of dragon. Thank you all for reading this story and I do hope that you will help me in my time of need. Thank you again and I hope have a nice day.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry about the long wait for the next chapter. For those of you who don't understand how to pronounce a few of the names, here is a little help for you. Blugun: blue-gun. Wendur: win-dur. Gundro: goon: dro. If you need me to show you any of the other pronunciations just ask me.**

I awoke to a sharp pain in my head. I realized that I was lying down on my scaly arm and one of the claws was digging into my scalp. I lifted my head then used my regular hand to check my head for bleeding. My hand came away clean.

I stood up and stretched. Then I went to the door and opened it. The full moon greeted me, as did the sounds of the animals. I closed my door then climbed back into bed. I curled up and went back to sleep.

The next time I woke up it was from Blugun prodding at my mind. When I was awake he told me that if I didn't hurry then I wouldn't be able to eat breakfast.

I jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed in a light wool shirt and brown leggings. I grabbed my boots, slid them on then left the building with Blugun flowing behind me. While I walked I brushed my hair into place using my fingers.

Blugun gently picked me up in his serrated claws and then he flew us the rest of the way to the eating hall. Blugun hovered a few feet off the ground then dropped me. I landed on my feet, stumbled a little then stood up straight. Blugun rose and went to the cave that he ate in with the other dragons.

I entered my own eating hall and this time unlike all the other times, the room didn't completely quiet down. That meant that the other riders were finally getting used to me. I went over to the food and got a plate and piled some food on it. I looked around and found Manny and Claire with an empty seat between them. I went over to them and sat between them. They were already almost done eating. I hurried through my food and finished at the same time as my friends.

I set my plate with the rest of the dirty dishes and followed my friends as they left the building.

"Why were you so late?" Manny asked me.

"I don't have anything to wake me up in the morning. What wakes you two up?" I asked them.

"I have this little wooden thing that wakes me up." Clair told me.

"I have one of those as well." Manny told me.

"Where did you get them?" I asked them.

"In the closet. I found mine when I first got here. The I asked Eragon what it was and he explained it to me." Claire told me.

"Oh." I now remembered seeing a small round wooden thing in my closet. I had put it away when I was putting my clothes in it. "I remember seeing it when I was moving in." I said to them.

"When you get back, put it beside your bed and turn it three times. Actually, two and three fourths would be best." Manny said to me.

"But I will first have to fix my little table. I already fixed my bed but everything else still needs to be fixed." I said to my friends.

Both my friends laughed and then Manny said "I completely forgot about how you broke your furniture."

Blugun, Wendur, and Luna contacted us and told us that they were leaving to practice then they flew out of our range.

The three of us returned to our building and we all went into my room. The three of us fixed the rest of my furniture and then Manny showed me what to do with the small alarm thing.

I wound it up then set it down on the newly repaired bedside table. Then the three of us met up on the top of the building each holding one of the scrolls we had been given. Manny and I switched and started reading while Claire finished hers up.

Several minutes after Claire finished her scroll we went back to our rooms and started getting our armor on. I strapped on my sword and then grabbed my shield. Then I left the building.

While I walked to my first class with Manny and Claire I felt Blugun flying closer to us with Wendur following behind him. I felt something wrong with Blugun; it was a pain in his front left leg. The two dragons landed in front of us and I hurried to Blugun's side.

There was a gash running a half a foot up his leg. I dropped my shield then I knelt down next to him and then pulled off my gauntlets. I drew on my magic then cast a healing spell. The gedwëy ignasia on my right hand started to glow and then the dark skin beneath Blugun's scales started to knit back together.

_What happened?_ I asked Blugun.

From Blugun's mind I sensed the relief from me healing his wound. _It was a training accident. Wendur and I were sparring and then he tripped and his claw dug into me._

_Oh._ When the healing was done I stepped away from my dragon and looked over the work that I had done. I saw a small cut a few inches away from the bigger one and then fixed that one as well.

"How is that?" I asked Blugun.

_Much better. Thank you, Josh._ Blugun said to me as he rubbed his nose against my chest.

"Well, you two had better get to your class." I said to the dragons. They nodded then took off. Manny, Claire and I continued walking to our class.

When we got there Samson was sitting in his chair again.

"Nice work on being here on time, today. Now lets see if you can keep it up." Samson stood up then he said to us "Today, you will be starting your training on taking care of swords. I have a sword for each of you. All three are dull, have a few rust spots on them, and they must all be polished." Samson went over to the table, grabbed three swords that were identical and then handed them to us.

The swords were single edged, slightly short, had a simple iron hand guard, light wooden hilt and then a round iron pommel. The blade on mine had four rust spots on it, the blade was duller than a butter knife and the entire sword was dirty and was in need of a good cleaning.

"First, you will learn how to get rid of the rust." Samson said to us. The next half hour was spent with Samson showing us how to get rid of the rust, another half hour was telling us about how rust formed. "Now that that is taken care of, time to teach you how to sharpen a blade using a whetstone." Samson handed each of us a whetstone then showed us on another sword a few techniques for sharpening the sword's blade. Then we spent to much time to count trying to sharpen the blades. It took a lot longer than it should have because Manny tried to use a spell to sharpen his sword when he thought that Samson wasn't looking. His attempt resulted in Samson taking all of our swords, then using a spell he made them even duller than they had previously been which I didn't think was possible.

The rest of class was spent with Samson teaching us how to polish the swords using an oddly colored gel. Samson had told us that the gel was specially treated to help prevent rust even longer than average.

Once class was over we happily laid down the swords and then went to lunch. We then went to the magic training grounds where Rhunon continued to teach us about enchanting.

The next few days were spent going over the lessons that we had been taught, practicing our sharpening, de-rusting, and polishing on the swords and then practicing our enchanting on the rocks.

By the end of the week I knew how to enchant a rock so that it could be used to heal a wound just by pressing it to the injured flesh, I knew to enchant many other things that I later did once I got back to our building. One of the enchantments went onto all my furniture to make it stronger and last longer.

On our first day off from classes the three of us all slept in with our dragons, skipping breakfast and waking up a couple hours before lunch was due to be served. After we were all awake we went onto the roof and relaxed in the soft glow of the sun with Manny, Claire and I sitting in the chairs with the dragons lying on their backs or their stomachs around us.

When we it was time for lunch our empty stomachs made us hurry to the eating hall and pile our plates high with food. I saw a large number of people who had done the same as us.

When we were done eating, the dragons decided to go swimming and then we riders decided to go with them. We quickly changed our clothes into some clothes fit for swimming then we hopped on the backs of our dragons then we all flew to the large lake that was nearby.

The lake already had a large number of riders and dragons in it but the lake was big enough to still fit quite a few people and dragons in it.

Our dragons dove into the water, shooting down like an arrow. I flattened myself against Blugun and took a deep breath. The water hit us like a wall but we continued shooting down through the crystal clear water. Blugun continued swimming down until he hit the lake bed then he propelled himself off of the ground and we shot up through the water, bursting out of the water when we reached the surface.

I shook my head like a dog shaking off water and laughed. It had been a very long time since Blugun and I had a chance to enjoy ourselves in the water. Blugun moved through the water like an eel, shooting past Wendur and Luna who were also carrying their riders. Wendur and Luna started chasing Blugun, making it a game of tag. Several more dragons and riders joined in and then everybody in the entire lake joined in making it a huge game of tag.

After about an hour of playing tag I jumped off of Blugun and dove into the water, wanting to swim for a while. While I was under, I heard a few more splashes. I looked through the clear water and saw that Manny and Claire had jumped off as well.

I swam towards a section of the lake that didn't have dragons swimming in it and my team followed me. I shot out of the water and took a deep breath the ease my aching lungs. Then while I caught my breath I floated on my back and waited for Manny and Claire to surface as well. When they did I splashed them with water and then they splashed me back. I stopped splashing and waited for them to regain their breath. The second they did I uttered a small spell and made a ball of water hit Manny in the back of the head.

"Hey!" hey yelled as the water hit him. "What was that?"

I laughed at him and then he splashed me back. Claire splashed Manny and then he splashed her back. We had a small splashing war, in which several more riders joined us. Several water balls went flying, as well as abnormally large waves. It was a lot of fun, but sadly all the fun made the time go by to quickly and so the sky soon got dark.

I sent out my mind to Blugun and told him that I was going to go and get ready for dinner. He was about to swim over to me but I told him that he should continue playing for as long as he wanted. _You have been training hard, you deserve it._ I told him.

_Alright, see you back in the building later._ Blugun thought to me.

I climbed out of the water, the rest of my team following me. "You guys don't want to continue playing?" I asked them.

"No, I'm done playing for today." Manny said to me. "I am so tired from swimming; I just want to go and sleep. But first I'm going to get some dinner."

"Same here." Claire said as she started walking towards our building.

"Where are you going?" Manny asked her. "The eating hall is that way." Manny said as he pointed to his right.

"Well, before I eat I would like to be dry and be in a set of dry clothes." Claire said to him.

"We can always just dry off quickly using magic." Manny said to her.

"Yes, but I still want to be in some decent clothing before I go and eat. All I'm wearing is this," Claire said as she gestured to her clothing which consisted of a black tight fitting shirt that stopped an inch or so below her chest and then a pair of matching tight fitting shorts that went down her legs only a couple of inches. "And I would like to be wearing something more appropriate."

"Fine." Manny said to her.

"You can go on ahead and dry yourself off and then go to eat dinner, but I'm going to get changed first." Claire suggested to him.

Manny muttered a few words in the ancient language and then the water that was coating him fell off and onto the ground, making a lot of mud. "Josh, you going to do the same as me or are you going to get changed as well?"

"I'm going to get changed." I said to the elf.

"Alright, see you two later." Manny said as he jogged off to the eating hall.

Claire and I walked in silence until we got to the building then we each went into our own rooms. I didn't feel like using a towel to dry myself off so I stepped into the tub and then using the ancient language I made the water come off of me and out of my shorts that I had worn.

I stepped out of the tub and then undressed. I went to my closet and pulled out some clothes. I slipped on them all and then grabbed my boots and then I left the building, almost running into Claire as she descended from the stairs.

"Sorry." I said to her as I stepped back.

"It's alright, Josh. Come on, lets go and get something to eat." Claire said as she started walking.

I caught up to her and asked her "Have you been having any troubles with your studies?"

"Only a little in the enchanting, but I'm starting to get better at it. The last time you helped me was great. I barely understood it before but after you tutored me I understood it completely. Do you understand the new stuff Rhunon-elda is telling us? It is a little confusing." Claire asked me.

"Yeah, I mostly understand it. I could definitely help." I said to her. "What part are you not understanding?" I asked Claire.

"I don't quite understand why you can't enchant something to make it last forever." Claire told me.

"I didn't quite understand that part at first either but then I thought about it a little more then I started to get it." I told Claire. Then for the rest of the walk I talked to Claire about how almost any object will eventually have to breakdown, no matter how many enchantments you imbue.

We reached the eating hall as I was asking Claire "Do you understand it now?"

"I think so." Claire told me. "Well, we can think about this another time. For now, lets eat."

"Agreed." I said as I held the door open for her.

Claire thanked me then she walked inside with me following. We got food then sat down next to a group of other riders that we had been playing with earlier. One of them asked me about my arm and how I had gotten it.

I finished my bite of fruit then said to him "When my dragon, Blugun, and I were flying here we got caught up in a storm. I was looking around for the island and shortly after I saw it, I felt Blugun's horns stab into my arm. Blugun then flew to the island as fast as he could and then when he reached the island, a bunch of riders surrounded him making him flip out. I was already passed out from the blood loss so the rest of this comes from Blugun's memory. He thought that they were trying to attack me. Then when Eragon touched Blugun's mind and told him that the riders that were around him were friends and that they only wanted to help me, Blugun decided that he wanted to heal me himself. So, Blugun used magic and blew fire at the same time. The fire washed over my arm and I'm guessing that the magic that was in the fire healed me. I woke up in my bed the next morning with my arm covered in bandages."

Almost the entire room was quiet as I finished my tale. I continued eating, as did most of the other riders.

"How does it feel?" a rider to my left asked me.

"It is a bit heavy, but it is also pretty strong. I almost can't feel a thing that touches it because of the scales." I told her.

"Wow." She said to me.

"Yeah." I agreed. I finished eating then I took my plate over to the growing pile of dirty dishes and then left the building.

I returned to my room, went to my desk and finished translating the last scroll. While I was working, Blugun entered the room and lit a few more candles using his fire. Anytime he got the chance, Blugun would light something on fire. He loved the fact that he could now breathe fire. I was also very happy and proud of him.

"So Blugun, what do you think of your first week here?" I asked him as I got ready for bed.

_I love it here. There is always plenty of food, so many polite dragons and other riders, and I love my classes. Although, I am a little homesick. _Blugun said to me.

_As am I, Blugun, as am I._ I said to him as I crawled into bed. _Good night, Blugun. Sweet dreams._

_Good night, Josh._ Blugun said as he closed his eyes and curled his tail around himself.

I was soon asleep and dreaming of home.

When I awoke it was to the buzzing of my alarm. I shut it off with a slap of my hand and then I climbed out of bed. I felt a little grubby so I took a quick bath which helped to wake me up then I dried off, shaved the small amount of stubble that had started growing on my chin, and got dressed.

I left the building and then walked to the eating hall with Blugun. We talked about our dreams and realized that we had both dreamed of home.

Blugun talked of the tree that he had always climbed when he had still been small, and I talked of the comfortable bed that we had shared until he had gotten to big for it. We both smiled at the memories and then continued to talk about the things that had once been.

We soon reached the eating hall and Blugun leapt up and into the dragon's eating cave. I went into the rider's eating hall and got a plate of food. Several riders beckoned me over and I sat with them next to Manny.

"Where's Claire?" I asked Manny.

"I don't know." Then Manny's face went blank for a few seconds then he said to me "I looks like her alarm broke. It didn't wake her up this morning so she was still sleeping. I woke her up and now she is hurrying to get dressed."

"Hm." I said as I started eating.

The riders looked like they were starting to warm up to me. Several of them asked me questions, some talked to me, but they others looked like they would still take a little more time before they uttered a single syllable to me. I stood up and left my plate with the rest of them and then left the building.

Outside standing in a circle was the three boys. When they saw me, they stopped talking then the brown haired boy pushed the others closer to me.

"Say it." he told them.

"Sorry." They said to me.

"I forgive you." I said to them. "Last time I asked, you ignored my question. So now will you answer it? What is your name?" I asked the brown haired boy.

"Walter. My name is Walter." The brown haired boy told me. "I already know your name so there is no need to introduce yourself."

I offered my hand to Walter and he shook it, showing a large amount of strength despite his thin body. "I am glad that the past is now behind us, Walter. I look forward to being your companion." I said to the skinny rider before me.

"It would be an honor." Walter said to me. Then he turned to his friends and said to them "Time to go, we still have some work to do." Then the three of them walked away.

Manny walked out of the eating hall behind me and stood beside me. "Weren't those the three guys that tried to beat you up and broke their hands instead?" Manny asked me.

"Yeah, the first one had already apologized back when I fixed their hands. He just made the other two apologize as well." I told Manny. "I'm guessing that now we are friends. Good thing to, I prefer to have friends rather than enemies."

"That is very wise my friend, very wise indeed." Manny said as he clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"Why is it that you suddenly sound like a wise old man?" I asked him.

"I don't know. I'm only seventeen so I have no clue why I sound like that. Maybe I'm just maturing?" Manny asked himself.

I may have only known him a week, but I knew for damn sure that he was not maturing. "Bull-shit! I've known you an entire week and I can tell that you are a very long ways from maturing." I told him.

"I'm going to get you back for that." Manny said to me.

"Why don't you do it now?" I asked him.

"Because Claire is right down the road." Manny said to me.

I looked down the road and there she was, sprinting down the road with her blond hair streaming behind her.

I still remembered the last time Claire had been in a bad mood and had caught us messing around. I still had the bruise on my thigh to show where she had kicked me.

Manny and I stepped aside as Claire ran past, her hair whipping me in the face. It would have hit Manny to if it wasn't for his naturally great speed and cat-like reflexes.

As I held the spot on my cheek where Claire's hair had hit me Manny smirked and said "It looks like I don't have to get you back. Claire's hair did it for me." then he laughed and I couldn't help but laugh with him.

When we were done laughing, I asked him "Why are we just standing out here?"

"I don't know. I thought we were waiting for Claire to get finished eating." He said to me.

"Oh." I said to him. "Have you finished translating your scroll?"

"Yeah, I finished it a few days ago." Manny said to me. "What about you?"

"I finished the last one last night." I told him.

"Good. I really hope that Claire has finished hers. She has been having troubles with the ancient language." Manny said to me.

"I know, but in time she will get better." I said to him.

"Yeah, how have you been doing in your enchanting? You understanding everything?" Manny asked me.

"Yeah, but Claire has been having a few problems. I helped her out last night when I walked with her to dinner." I told Manny.

"Good. How has Blugun been? I saw him breathing fire not to long ago and I saw that he has been walking great over the ground. Does that mean that the extra training with Wendur and Luna has been going good?"

"Yes, Blugun has been doing great thanks to Wendur and Luna. How has Wendur been? I remember that he had been having troubles flying." I said to Manny.

"He was, but he has gotten a lot better. He still has some troubles when a strong wind hits him but other than that he has been doing great." Manny said to me.

"Very good to hear. It sounds like we are doing very well so far. It won't be long before we are off this island." I said as I daydreamed about finding the purple dragon.

"Wrong. It will still be quite some time before we are gone." Manny said to me. "Remember that in order for us to leave we have to be rank three riders and on top of that we must be needed in Alagaesia and all the teachers must also be gone."

I sighed and my shoulders slumped. "Can you never be optimistic about anything?" I asked the elf.

"Sometimes, but about this, no I cannot." Manny said to me.

"Damn, you suck ass." I said to the elf.

"You could only wish." Mando said to me with a smile.

I laughed and then leaned against the building, crossing my arms over my chest. "How much longer do you think Claire will take to eat?"

"I'm done." Claire said from beside me as she left the eating hall.

"Good, now lets get back to our rooms." I said to Claire.

We walked to the building talking about well we were each doing in our class.

"I just have a few more lines left to translate in the last scroll." Claire told Manny.

"Good, then that means that we will soon be done with all of our work and then we can move on in our studies." Manny said to Claire.

"Yep. Do either of you know what our next subject will be now that we are done with both the scrolls and enchanting?" I asked them.

"I have wondered that as well." Manny said to me.

"Hopefully it will involve some kind fighting magic." Claire said to us.

"Yeah, I would love to learn to fight with magic." I said to her.

"As would I." Manny said as we reached our building. We each went into our own rooms then donned our armor. As I was slipping my ring on, Blugun came into the room and settled down into his bed.

I pulled my gauntlet over my hand then went and sat down next to him.

We sat in silence and just enjoyed each other's company until it was time for our classes to begin. I stood up and then left the building with Blugun following. I saw Mando farther up the road. I patted Blugun on the shoulder and then said to him _I shall see you later._

_Yes, see you later._ Then I jogged over to Manny while Blugun took off, following the rest of the dragons that were also on their way their class.

When Manny and I reached the field Claire was already there and waiting with Samson crouched in the dirt, writing something into the soft ground with his finger.

When Samson was done with whatever he was writing he stood from his crouch and greeted us. "Now that you are done with learning to care for a sword, I want each of you to learn how to use a sword. Which means, that from now on, you will be learning how to fight."

Claire, Manny and I were all very excited to hear that we were finally learning to fight. I held my hand on the hilt of my sword, and waited for Samson to give us our first lesson.

"Claire, Josh, I want you two to drop your swords and then pick up those sticks over there." Samson said as he pointed at a stack of sticks carved roughly into swords. "Before you learn to fight with swords, you will learn to fight with sticks. Manny, you will be sparring against me so you go pick up a stick as well."

All three of us took our weapons off of our belts that held our weapons and laid them onto the table. I had only ever seen Claire's dagger and had never thought that she had a sword. I inspected it as she laid it onto the table next to mine.

Claire's sword was curved, had an elegant silver cross guard with a smooth dark brown wooden hilt. The scabbard for the sword was black leather with a vive design pressed into the leather. The pommel of her sword was in the shape of a tear drop with a small diamond in the center. Next to the sword Claire laid down her dagger.

Manny laid his sword down and I looked at it for the first time as well. It was a rapier, everything on in was very simple. The scabbard was most likely made of steel and polished to a mirror like shine; the quillon was silver as was the knuckle guard. The hilt was made of gray wood and the pommel was round with an emerald set into the center. Manny laid down a dagger next to his sword that matched his rapier.

I went over to the pile and grabbed one of the sticks. Manny and Claire did the same as me and picked up a stick. "Manny, toss me a stick." Samson said to Manny. Manny grabbed the last stick on the pile and then he tossed it to Samson who caught it with one hand.

"Manny, stand in front of me with ten spaces in between us. Claire and Josh, you two do the same." We got into the positions that Samson told us to get into and then we waited for his next instruction. "Now, raise your stick into the ready position." He demonstrated and we mirrored him. "Good, now fight!"

Claire suddenly attacked me and I barely managed to get my stick up in time to block it. I retaliated and tried a low swing. Claire actually jumped over my attack and when she was coming back down she tried a down ward stroke. I saw what she was trying to do and tried to jump out of the way but I was to slow. Thankfully, I was fast enough that her attack didn't hit me on the head. Instead it hit my left shoulder.

Pain flared through me and I started to see dots flying around my vision. I held onto my shoulder, the touch of my hand sending more pain shooting through me, and then I stood up with help from Claire.

"Damn that hurt." I said to her through clenched teeth.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that, it was just, um, I don't know what it was. I just did it." Claire said to me.

"It was a reflex." I told her. "You are a naturally gifted fighter. You are going to be one of the most deadly people on the battlefield." I said with a smile. "Waise heill." I muttered. My right hand started to glow under my gauntlet and then my skin felt like it was crawling. I felt my collar bone move around and I realized that it had been fractured in the attack. I felt several more bones shift under the spell but the pain soon ended and when it did I ended the spell.

"Damn, you fractured my collar bone." I told her. "As well as a few more bones. I don't know how you managed to fracture the other bones but somehow you did. That was an impressive attack."

"I am so sorry, and thank you for the compliment." Claire said with a small laugh.

"It's alright, I forgive you." I said to her as I watched Manny and Samson fight. Claire looked up to them and then we both watched the two riders fight. Sadly we only got to see the ending of the fight where Manny blocked a blow from Samson, which broke both sticks and sent the shards of wood flying through the air. One of which, almost hit me and embedded itself into the ground an inch or so away from my foot.

Samson hadn't broken a sweat but Manny was covered in sweat and he was breathing hard. "Good fight." Samson said to Manny as he patted him on the shoulder. Manny accepted the praise with a nod. "How was your first sparring session?" Samson asked us.

"I broke his collar bone." Claire said as she hung her head.

"You didn't break it." I said to Claire. "You only fractured it."

"Does it need mending?" Samson asked me.

"No, I already healed it." I said to Samson. "Claire here," I said as I gripped her shoulder, "Is a natural at fighting. She jumped over my attack and swung down at me. I barely managed to get my head away fro the attack and then I took the stick to my shoulder."

"Nice job, to both of you. Claire, you must have very good reflexes and instincts to do something like that, and Josh you have to have some pretty good speed in order to move out of the way from something like that." Samson said to us. "Mando, you fought amazingly. I haven't had a fight like that since the last time I sparred with Eragon." Manny's face started glowing with pride and happiness. "I am proud of all three of you. You did very nice for your first day. For the rest of class, take it easy. Sit in the grass and enjoy the sun." then Samson walked off of the field.

"Wow, I didn't think that today was going to be so exciting." Manny said to us as he walked closer.

"It may have been exciting for you but not for me or Josh." Claire said to Manny.

"Hold on now, it was pretty exciting for me. I figured out that both of my friends are amazing fighters and that has me pretty excited. I may have gotten a little hurt but that pain was nothing compared to proud I am of you two." I said to my friends. "Both of you are going to be demons on the battle field. I can only hope to be as amazing as you two. Please tell me that you will help me to get better? I am very lacking in the skill of fighting and I really want to have you two tutor me."

"It would be an honor to tutor you." Manny said to me.

"Same here." Claire said to me.

I smiled and said to them "Good, now that I have two of the best fighters in Alagaesia tutoring me there is no way I will ever lose in a duel. Now, let us do as Samson has instructed and rest in the grass. I would love to soak up a few rays of sun."

"Okay, lets go." Claire said as she led the way to the closest patch of grass.

**Sorry again about the long wait everybody. I managed to break through my writers block a little and created one of the bullies, Walter. I still need help with the other two so please send me any suggestions you may have. I hope you all enjoyed chapter four and please stay with me as I continue to write down this story. Please have a nice day.**


	5. Chapter 5

When it was time for lunch we got up and out of the grass and then headed to the eating hall. When we got there, I sent my mind out to see if Blugun was in his eating cave. He wasn't in there but I did sense him on his way.

I entered my own eating hall and got some food. Once Manny, Claire and I were done eating we left the hall, went back to our building and got the scrolls and our translations of the scrolls and then we started on our way to our magic class.

Silina was sitting in her usual spot. We got to the field and then we all sat down in our own chairs.

"Did you three finish the work I assigned to you?" Silina asked us.

"Yes, Master." We said to her.

"Good, now Josh, I want you to tell me how fluent you are when it comes to speaking in the ancient language." Silina said to me.

"I am decent in it." I said to Silina.

"Good, Claire, how about you?" Silina asked her.

"I'm not very good at it." Claire said to Silina.

"Well, we will be working on that. Mando, how good are you?" Silina asked him. Manny then shot out a long stream of words from the ancient language and then Silina replied to him, also speaking in the ancient language. "All three of you have a basic knowledge of the ancient language, am I correct?"

All three of us nodded and then Silina pulled out three scrolls from her bag. She handed each one of us a scroll. "All three scrolls are exactly the same, I want you to memorize all the words on these scrolls and then write a translation of each one. The scroll I have given you will be the first few pages in the book that you three will be writing. The book will be a dictionary of the ancient language. In the front of the book will be all the words, and then the back of the book will contain all the stories that I will give you to translate." Silina pulled out three small sheets of paper then handed each of us one. "This paper has all the guidelines of the book. If you need to see what the final copy will end up looking like, I have my own here in my bag." Silina then pulled out a very thick, very large leather bound book with a metal clasp on it.

The front cover of the book had Silina's name on it and around her name were spirals of words from the ancient language.

"Every rider must make one." Silina said to us. "All the materials you could need for the book will be in your room, as well as better desks. The last riders who used your rooms were not that responsible with their furniture. If I remember correctly, we actually had their desks replaced with small tables."

"When must we start on the book?" Claire asked Silina.

"Tonight. As I said earlier, you will be making translations of the words on these scrolls, then you will write the translations into a book." Silina told Claire. "The dictionary section of the book will be in alphabetical order. The scrolls that I have given you is all the words of the ancient language that I want you to learn that begin with the latter a." I looked at the scroll and counted the words. There were twenty two words on the scroll. "I want this to be done by the end of the week. And then next week I will give you a new scroll to learn from."

"So will there always be twenty words on the scrolls?" Claire asked Silina.

"Usually, but for the letter m there is a little more than thirty and for z there is only about ten." Silina told us.

"So is every single one of these books the same?" I asked Silina.

"No, in the back of the book, the part full of your story translations, that part of the book is always unique. You choose which stories you want to go in there." Silina told us. "The scrolls I have given you is this week's homework, so you will do it on your own time. During class, we will be matching up with your other class in the subject. You will be learning to fight with magic."

I couldn't believe it. We were learning what we wanted to learn. I looked over to my friends and saw that they were as amazed as I was.

"Today's lesson will be on basic fighting spells." Silina told to us. Then she held up her hand and said "Brisingr." Then a pale gray flame came to life in her hands. "Brisingr means fire. It is one of the most basic fighting spells; it is also one of the most useful words for you to know. I want all three of you to cast brisingr."

We all said the ancient word and then a different colored flame sprung up in our palms. Mine was a dark blue, Manny's a bright green and Claire's was a blazing silver. "Claire, bring it down a bit." Silina said to Claire. Claire nodded and then her fire was brought down to a simple flame.

"Good, now I want you to mimic my flame. When I make the flame bigger, you make it bigger and when I make it small you do the same. After that, I will make it more difficult. In order for you to use fire to fight with, you must first learn to control it. The point of these exercises is to teach you the control you need."

Silina then made her flame grow by several inches and we then did the same. Silina shrunk her fire to half of its original size and then we did the same. "Good, now I want you to do several slightly complicated things with me." Silina told us.

Silina's fire became incredibly thin and then it coiled in the air.

Claire and I had some troubles making the flame so thin but I was capable of getting the flame to coil pretty easily. Claire had a few troubles getting her flame to coil as well but with some help from Mando she managed to get it.

"Good job, students. Now for something a little more complicated." Silina said to us. The gray flame that she held reverted to its regular form and then it formed an almost perfect sphere. Then the sphere grew bigger and then the sides of the sphere turned into what looked like a honeycomb shape.

"There is no way I could ever do that." I said to Silina.

"I don't think I can do that either." Claire said to Silina.

"Got it." Manny said to Silina.

I looked over to Manny and sure enough his fire was identical to Silina's. "What the hell; how did you do that?" I asked him.

"Watch your language!" Silina said to me.

"Sorry, Master." I said to Silina.

"It's alright but next time there will be consequences." Silina said to me.

"Yes, Master." I said to her.

"To answer your question, Josh, I really just imagine the fire doing this and it does it." Manny said to me.

"Seriously, that's all it takes?" I asked the elf.

"Yeah, that's all it takes." Manny said to me.

I decided to give what Manny had said a try. I just imagined the flame moving but nothing happened to it. Manny saw me struggling with it and then he said to me "You actually have to put some feeling into it, not just imagine it."

I nodded and did as he said. I tried to put some feeling into the imagining, and it worked. The flame molded to what I wanted it to. When I had the same honey comb thing going on with my sphere I turned to Claire and saw that she was almost done with her fire as well.

"Very good, it is nice to see that you are helping each other out. That is how you become a great team." Silina said to us. "This next step isn't much of a change, but it is still a little difficult." Silina said to us. Her fire grew even bigger and another fire sparked to life inside of the gray honey comb shaped sphere. The second fire also turned into a hollow honey comb thing and then another fire ball was lit in the center, this time just a plain fire, nothing special about it.

After a minute or two I managed to get it done and Claire did as well. Obviously Manny had gotten it after a few seconds, but he was an elf so nobody was surprised.

"You may now release your fire." Silina said to us. Claire and I happily released the spell because it was greatly exhausting our energy. I looked over to Manny and saw that he seemed just fine.

"Undoubtedly the exercises of today have left you all some-what tired so I want you three to just study for the rest of the class. That will be all for today, see you three tomorrow." Silina said as she left the clearing.

I slumped in my chair as I watched her leave. All the fire had left me more than some-what tired. It had left me almost exhausted. The fire had burned through all of my energy, and in the end I had to draw on the energy in my ring.

"Damn, I am tired." Claire said to us. I looked over to her and saw that she was bent over in her chair with her elbows on her knees.

"You okay?" I asked her.

Claire nodded and then she said "Yeah, I'm just a little tired."

"Don't you have some energy stored in the pommel of your dagger?" I asked her.

Claire slapped herself on her forehead and then she said "I completely forgot about that." Then she pulled out her dagger and held a hand against the pommel of her dagger and then after a few seconds she straightened up and took a deep breath. "Much better. I'm very glad you reminded me about that." Claire told me. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." I said to her as I picked up my scroll of the ancient language. I started reading through it and trying to memorize the words. I knew most of the translations, and I knew that if I needed any help I could just ask Mando.

I heard Claire unroll her scroll and then after several seconds of silence I heard her ask "What do all these words mean?"

"There are quite a few difficult words on this scroll." Manny said to us. "I'm pretty surprised at some of these words, a pretty good number of these words are very difficult and there are several here that are pretty rude. This one here means bastard." Manny told us as he pointed out one of the words in the middle of the list.

"What the hell?" I said as looked at the word. "What kind of shit is this?"

"Shit is here to. Down at the bottom of the list. Third from the bottom." Manny said to us.

""How do you know that word?" Claire asked Manny.

"It is a very popular word among the young elves. The same for quite a few of these other words." Manny told us as he continued to read through the scroll. "I'm thinking that it was a bunch of young elves that made these scrolls for us." Manny said to us as he rolled his scroll back up. "With all these words, there is no way that an adult would have made these."

I rolled my scroll up and then I put it into the pouch that I had attached to my belt. "I think that it is about time to head over for dinner." I said to my teammates.

"Good, because I'm hungry." Claire said to me. "All that fire has seriously depleted all my energy."

"Same here." I said to Claire.

"Alright, lets go." Manny said as he stood up. Claire and I stood up as well and then we all made our way to the eating hall. We quickly ate and then we left the building and went to our own building. I returned to my room and then I pulled out my scroll from my pouch. I removed my armor and then sat down at my desk. In the middle of my desk was a package. I opened the package and found a leather book cover, spine and back cover. There was a bunch of blank papers tied together with some string. There was also two ink wells and several quills. There were also several blank scrolls.

I put all the parts for the book into one of the drawers and grabbed one of the scrolls. I unrolled it and then I unrolled my scroll of the ancient language. I placed rocks on each of the corners of both scrolls then I grabbed the inkwell that I had already been using as well as the quill I had been using. I started to write out the ancient language and then next to that I wrote the translations.

While I was doing this, Blugun entered the room and nudged my shoulder. I felt his mind come into contact with mine and I then dropped my barriers and let him in. _Do you want to fly for a while? It has been quite some time since we last flew just for fun._

"Sure, Blugun. Just let me finish this word then we can go." I said to the dragon. I finished writing and then I set down my quill and closed my inkwell. I slipped my boots back on and then I opened Blugun's door. I climbed up on Blugun's bare back and then Blugun walked out of the building, closing his door with his tail.

Blugun lifted his wings up high and then brought them back down. He did it several more times before he lifted into the air by a few feet. Then Blugun flew up higher and higher until he was above the buildings. Then with a few more mighty flaps of his wings Blugun soared over the buildings. I heard flaps behind us and then looked back. Two more dragons were in pursuit of us. One silver, the other green.

"You up for a race?" Claire said when Luna flew up beside us. Manny and Wendur flew on my other side.

_Blugun, lets leave these two in our dust._ I said to Blugun. I felt his confirmation and then he shot through the sky, leaving the other two dragons behind. Luna quickly caught up to us and then Blugun put on another burst of speed but Luna continued to stay beside us. I saw Wendur way back, still trying to catch up to us.

_Blugun, try and hit some rough wind. Lets see if they can keep up then._

_Yeah!_ Blugun said to me. _I know just where to go._

_Good, now lets win this!_ Blugun banked to the left and then dove down close to the ground, barely ten feet above the ground. Then he flew over a river and I noticed that Blugun quickly changed how he was flying. I looked back and saw that Luna wasn't doing to well.

Her wings kept faltering on the different air currents and she was falling behind. Blugun flew even faster over the river and then he shot out from above the river and again Blugun quickly changed how he was flying and then he shot over to the lake. The air was calm as Blugun glided over the water. Then Blugun flew towards a cliff but then he dived down, deep into the lake. I barely managed to get a breath of air before Blugun was completely submerged.

Blugun swam deep into the lake and then he pulled up and faced the cliff again, this time Blugun didn't turn. I tried to get Blugun's attention but he ignored me and continued to swim at the cliff. At the very last second her turned left and then right, right into a small opening in the side of the cliff.

Blugun swam for a few more seconds and then he pulled up and we shot out of the water and into a pitch black cave. Blugun landed on a large rock and then he blew fire onto the rock. Blugun continued to blow fire until the rock itself was on fire.

_It is safe to get off. We have definitely won the race._ Blugun said to me.

I got off of Blugun's back and then I sat beside the fire, letting the heat from the flames slowly dry my clothes.

"How did you find this place?" I asked Blugun.

_I found it back when the other dragons and I were playing tag in the lake. I really like it down here. This is only about the third time I've been down here._ Blugun said to me.

"How would air get down here? There would have to be a hole somewhere for the air to travel through." I said to Blugun.

_Yeah, there is a small set of holes that reach all the way up to the top of the cliff. They are all in a group near the back of the cave._ Blugun told me.

I heard splashing and then I heard the clicking of a set of dragon claws hit rock. I saw a silver glow come from behind Blugun and then Luna laid down next to Blugun. Claire got off the back of Luna and then she sat down next to me.

"This place is really cool." Claire said to me.

"Yeah, it sure is. Blugun found it back on our first day off." I told Claire. "So where are Wendur and Manny?" I asked Claire.

"There were circling over the lake. Luna has already told them how to find the cave." Claire told me.

"Good. You know what? I think this place can be like our secret little hiding place. We could use this place if we ever get in serious trouble and need to hide." I said to Claire.

"That is a very good idea." Claire said to me.

Blugun blew some more flames onto the rock and the flame grew a bit brighter. Luna added her own fire to it and then the fire got even brighter.

The sound of a splash drew our attention and then Wendur burst out of the water, sending water drops flying all over the cave.

Wendur landed next to Luna and then Manny got off of Wendur's back and then came over to us dripping wet. He sat down on the ground with a loud squelch. Manny murmured something in the ancient language and then the water rose off of him in the shape of steam.

"What words did you use to do that?" I asked him.

"One of the last words on the list we were given. Auzen." I tried the spell and the water on me lifted off in the form of steam as well. I looked over to Claire and saw steam coming off of her as well.

"Cool." I said as I sat and watched the fire.

"Yeah, I love magic." Manny said to me. "So what is this place?"

"This is now our secret hide out. If we ever need to run this is where we will go." I told Manny.

"Oh. How did you find this place?" Manny asked me.

"I didn't, Blugun did. He found it on our last day off." I told Manny. Blugun grumbled his confirmation.

"Wow, a place like this is always a good idea to have." Manny said to us.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt." Claire said to us.

We sat in silence for several minutes and then Manny asked us "How much longer are we going to stay in here?"

"I don't know." I said to him. "Does anybody else want to leave? I kind of want to leave."

_I want to leave, I'm getting tired of so little light._ Blugun said to me.

I felt Luna and Wendur touch my mind. I let them in and then Wendur told me in his slightly feminine voice _I also would like to leave._

_As would I._ Luna told me.

"Claire, what about you?" I asked her.

"Come on, lets get out of here." Claire said as she stood up.

I mumbled a quick spell and a ball of water lifted up from the way in and then it splashed down on the flaming rock.

All three of us riders climbed up on our dragons and then we took a deep breath as the dragons dove down into the water. Less than a minute passed before the dragons surfaced again. We riders released the breath that we had been holding and took another before the dragons submerged again. This time the dragons just swam around underwater. The dragons swam underneath the water for a little bit longer and then they surfaced and swam around for a little longer. When it got dark out, the dragons all took off from the surface of the water and flew back to the building.

Blugun and I went inside our room and then I closed the doors. I dried Blugun and I off with a quick spell then I dropped into the tub and took a bath. Once I was done, I again dried off with a spell and then I got ready for bed.

I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. "Good night, Blugun." I said to my dragon.

_Good night, Josh. _Blugun said to me. I was soon asleep.

The rest of the week was spent learning how to fight with swords and magic and learning the ancient language. It took me roughly five days to finish translating the first set of words as well as putting them into the book. After I was done with the words I started putting the story if the Amethyst dragon into the back of my book. I got about halfway through it by the end of the week.

It was the last day of the week and we were just finishing up with our fighting class.

"You have definitely gotten better." Samson said to me as he patted me on my shoulder.

"Thanks." I said to him as I propped my stick against the table.

"You're welcome." Samson said to me as I strapped my sword back on.

"Well, we had better be going to lunch." I said to my friends as I buckled my belt.

"Yeah, lets go." Claire said to us as she also buckled on her sword and belt.

"Lets get some food!" Manny said as he finished buckling his belt.

The three of us hurried to the eating hall and then we quickly ate our food and then headed to the next class.

When we got there, as always Silina was in her chair. The three of us all sat in our usual chair and then we pulled out the scroll that we had translated the ancient language on. Claire and Manny had done the same as I had done and put pouches onto their belts.

All three of us handed our scrolls to Silina and then she spent the next few minutes looking over them.

"Very good." Silina said to us as she re-rolled the scrolls we had handed to her. She set the scrolls on the table and then she said to us "I think that you three have done very well with controlling your fire. I want all three of you to combine your fire into one large fire. Make your separate fires whole and strong."

"Brisingr." The three of us said. Then a flame sparked to life in each of our palms. The dark blue of my flames made the scales on my right hand glow a strong, deep black. We stood up then moved into a circle. I pointed my palm at the center of us and then Manny and Claire did the same. For a few seconds our flames remained separate, then they started to twist around each other and then the three flames fused and became one large golden flame.

"Congratulations. You three are truly a team." Silina said to us as she watched the flame. "Now, put out the fire and sit down so that I can explain to you what the purpose of this exercise is."

Manny and Claire put out their fire, and I tried to as well but I couldn't. The energy for the fire wasn't coming from me, nor was it coming from anybody else. The fire was coming from someone else that wasn't in the clearing.

The golden flame started to crawl up my right arm. I tried to put it out, but it was to no avail. I used the ancient language and grabbed some water from the river and dumped it on my arm but the flame just continued to burn bright.

The flame was up to my elbow now. I looked over to my friends and saw that they were frantic. They were using magic to get a bunch of water. It was all suspended above their heads. They brought down the water on me but the flame continued to grow.

I watched as the flame crawled up my bicep and closer to my shoulder. Water dripped from my hair and into my eyes so I shook my head to get rid of some of the water. The flame was at my head now it was slowly creeping up. When it covered my eyes, at first all I saw was the gold flames. But the gold slowly faded to a fierce purple flame, I recognized these flames.

The flames faded from my sight and then again I saw the cavern. The Amethyst Dragon sat in the sat spot that I had first seen here and then sand and dirt was still gently flaming.

_Danger. It is everywhere. Not just for me but for you as well. The danger will come. I know not who will be in danger first, you or I. The danger may not attack today, or tomorrow, or even next week but what I do know is that there will be danger in the near future. Be ready at all times for an attack. Till when next I see you, farewell._

My vision faded away from the dragon and the cavern and back to the clearing. I was looking up at the bright blue sky. I was comfortable as the sun glowed down on me. I had a slight head ache but that passed after several seconds. I didn't move, I just watched a cloud float across the sky until I heard Manny say "He's awake!"

I heard something hit the ground next to my head so I turned and looked at it and saw a pair of knees covered in light brown leather pants. I looked up at the owner and saw Manny. "Dude, what happened?" he asked me.

I didn't answer, I just sat up and looked around me. Claire was kneeling down at my feet and Silina was standing behind her. Sitting in one of the chairs was Eragon. Eragon stood up and walked over to me. I quickly moved around until I was kneeling in front of him.

"Josh, what happened to you?" Silina asked me.

"I don't know." I lied to her.

"Josh, that fire, it covered up your entire head. And then you fell backwards. You hit your head on a rock and now you've been out for about an hour. The fire went away when you hit your head." Silina told me.

Eragon cleared his throat then he said to me "Josh, your friends have already been told the purpose of the exercise so now I will tell you. The purpose of the fire was so that we will know whether or not you three can work as a team. If you can, then the fires will all combine together, but if you couldn't then the fires would have fought each other. The flames of Manny, Claire and you all combined together and made one large flame. You and your team all passed the test. It is actually very rare when a team doesn't pass." Eragon said to me.

"So does that mean that the three of us all passed?" I asked him.

"Yes, it does. Normally, this test is not taken until the end of your first year here. But, you, Manny and Claire have shown great promise and that is why I told Silina to give you the test." Eragon told me. "You and your teammates have finished a test that you required in order to get to the next level of rider. There is still two more tests that you must pass before you can do this so keep training hard and keep studying hard. Farewell." Eragon said to us as he turned and then left.

"Good job, very good job you three." Silina said to us. "It is very close to dinner time so go ahead and head out. I will see you in two days. Remember that tomorrow is your free day so be sure to enjoy it." Silina said to us. "Farewell." Then she left us as well.

I waited until I was sure that Silina could not hear us then I said to Manny and Claire "We need to talk."


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry about such a long wait. Monday through Saturday of last week was spent at a camp with my friends. It was a no tech camp and so I couldn't do anything with this story then so I have spent the past couple days writing this chapter. I have gotten little sleep so I apologize ahead of time if this chapter sucks ass. I hope you enjoy.**

**Oh, and to Spyroxcynderfan1, I cannot put my old stories up on this site. They are actually against the terms of agreement. Those stories had a rating of MA and those are not allowed on this site. I'm sorry that I couldn't put them back on, I really am. I also want to put them back on but I just can't. so once more, sorry.**

"Seriously?" Claire asked me after I had explained to my friends what had happened.

"Yeah, so always be ready. As she said, there will be danger so always carry your sword with you." I told Manny and Claire. "I suggest we start storing up some energy just in case we need to do a lot of spells. I know of something that will help us to get a lot of energy together. Every night before you go to bed, transfer as much energy as you can into the gem in one of your weapons. And if Luna or Wendur will let you then take their energy as well."

"I have a little bit of energy in the pommel of my sword but it's not enough for anything other than a small spell." Manny told me.

"I've got a bit of energy in my dagger." Claire told me.

"Good, keep storing up and if we do get attacked hopefully by then we will have more than enough energy stored up. I still have a pretty good amount of energy stored up in my ring. Back when I was training with Septimus, I would often go hunting. I never killed anything, I just paralyzed the animals I found and then I took as much energy from the animals as I could without killing it. I suggest we do this on our next free day and in our spare time. Are you two any good at hunting?" I asked my friends.

"Yeah, I'm really good at shooting a bow and sneaking around." Mando told me.

"Yeah, I saw your shooting in our fighting classes. Claire, how about you?" I asked her.

"I'm very good at tracking animals, although I'm not very good at staying quiet. I'm always stepping on sticks or twigs." Claire said to me.

I thought for several seconds then I remembered about a gift that I had heard about. "Claire, have you ever heard about the ring that the dwarves gave to Saphira?" I asked her.

"Um, I think so." Claire said to me. "What about it?"

"It had an enchantment on it. The enchantment made it so that nobody could hear her when she approaches." I told Claire. "If I could learn how to make that enchantment, then we can easily go hunting for energy together. Manny, I will need your help with it. We will also have to get a ring."

"Do you not remember what Rhunon told us about enchanting?" Claire asked me. "The enchantment is always more powerful whenever you make the ring while also doing the enchantment."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So that means that we have to also find a place to make a ring as well as someone to teach us how to make a ring." I said to my friends. "Damn, that sucks."

"I don't think we have time to make a ring. We should just find a ring and then enchant it." Manny said to me.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We should also find you a ring that way you can store your energy in it." I said to the elf.

"Yeah, but again you are missing a vital point in this plan. We don't know where we can get the rings from." Manny told me.

"Shit." I said to myself. "Is there no way we can do this? Wait, I think I remember something that can help us." I wracked my brain for something to help us. I could almost remember what it was. Then, it struck me. "We can make the rings right here." I said to my friends. "Remember how there are small amounts of every element in the ground?" I asked Manny and Claire.

"Of course. We can draw up the silver or gold from the earth and then we can shape it into a couple of rings. But, we will still need gems to put into the rings." Manny said to me.

"Take a piece of the gem out of your daggers. I can help with that. Give me your dagger." I said to Manny. He handed me his dagger and then I asked him "Do you have any energy in this?"

"No, it is all in my sword." Manny said to me.

"Good." Then I gripped the pommel of the dagger and then said the word for break. I controlled the break and took a small sphere out of the gem. I handed the dagger and the gem fragment to Manny and the Claire handed me her dagger after she took the energy out of the pommel and transferred it into her sword and then I took a small piece of diamond out of the pommel and then I handed her the dagger and the diamond.

"I got this next part." Manny told me as I shook from exhaustion. I nodded my thanks and then he kneeled down in the dirt. Manny held his hand on the ground and then after a few seconds Manny said to me "There isn't much metal here, but I think that there is enough silver for half a ring, then rest can be made of iron. Claire, how does that sound to you?"

"Sounds good." Claire said to the elf.

Manny looked back down to the ground and then he closed his eyes and started mumbling in the ancient language. After a bout a minute, Manny held his hand up and then out of the ground flowed two tendrils of metal. One tendril was a bright silver, the other a dull gray.

The two metals coiled around each other like vines and then they stayed still in a circle. It was thin, but it was still a ring.

Manny handed me the ring, Claire handed me the diamond and then I said the word for combine and then the diamond slowly pressed into the metal and four small pieces of metal flowed up and then they gripped the diamond, holding it down. I handed Claire her ring and then she slipped the ring onto her pointer finger.

Claire held her hand onto the pommel of her sword and the gem in her ring glowed for a few seconds and then the glow dulled down and vanished.

"Manny, do you think there will be enough metal back near the building for another ring?" Manny nodded and then I said "Good. When we get back from dinner I'll start working on the enchantment." I said to my friends. "Manny, will you help me?" Manny nodded and then I said "Alright, now lets go and eat some food."

Manny and Claire followed me as I led the way to the eating hall. We ate quickly and then we returned to the building. I watched as Manny checked if there was enough metal for a ring. He said that there was and then he made a ring out of silver.

I put his gem into his ring and then he transferred some energy into the gem. Then the two of us went into my room and for the next two hours we worked on the words to use for the enchantment. We got most of it down and we still had to go over it to fix any kind of error on it. Blugun helping every now and then.

Manny left my room, I took a bath, took the small amount of energy I still had left and then Blugun gave me some of his and then the two of us went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning with a slight head ache. I shut off the alarm and then I sneezed and then held my head as pain coursed through it.

_You are sick. You must rest._ Blugun said to me in my head.

"Whoa, easy." I said to the dragon as I felt woozy from his comment in my head.

Blugun grumbled an apology to me. I felt Blugun's mind expand and then Manny's mind connected to Blugun's and my mind. Blugun told Manny about how I was feeling and then I told them that I felt fine.

_Josh, I can feel from your mind that you are sick. You must stay in bed and rest._ Manny said to me.

I groaned and held my head. Then I worked through the mugginess in my mind and said to Manny, _No, I must attend class. I will feel fine once I get up and start walking around._

I felt from Manny's mind that he didn't believe me. _I will not allow you out of your room. If you try and leave then I will force you into your room._ I knew that Manny wasn't kidding so I gave in.

_Very well, I shall stay in bed._ I said to the elf and Blugun.

_Good. I shall inform you of what we learned in class. _Manny said to me.

_Thank you._ I said to Manny. _I shall go back to sleep now._

_Good, see you in a bit. _Manny said to me.

I sent him my agreement and then curled back up in bed and fell asleep.

I woke up with the sound of Blugun's claws clicking on the floor of the room. I opened my eyes and saw out Blugun's door for a few seconds before he closed it with his tail. It looked like it was about noon.

Blugun nudged me with his snout and then he dropped a wrapped package from his paw on my chest.

"What is this?" I asked the dragon as I sat up in bed. I felt a bit better but I still felt a bit queasy.

_Food. If you are feeling better then you should eat._

"Thanks." I said to Blugun as I started to unwrap the food. There was an apple, two bananas and several slices of pineapple.

I dug into the food and when I was done I folded up the cloth the food had come in. I thanked Blugun again and then he left for his next class. I set the cloth down on the small table beside my bed next to my ring and then I curled back up for some more sleep.

I awoke again to the sound of Blugun's claws clicking on the floor. I sat up and looked at him. This time he was holding some wrapped food in the front of his teeth. Blugun dropped the food in my lap and he then rubbed his snout against my chest. I thanked him again and then I unwrapped the food and started to eat.

Once I was done I folded the cloth and set it on top of the other one. Blugun curled up in his bed and watched as I stood up on shaky legs. I walked around for a few minutes, then I sat back down on the edge of my bed. I fell back on my bed and waited for my head to stop pounding and for the tumbling in my stomach to ease down.

Once the headache had stopped pounding, and my stomach had stopped rolling I sat up and rubbed my head. I looked over to Blugun and saw his eyes closed but from my connection with his mind I knew he was awake. Blugun opened his eyes and stared at me with his eyes.

_Your mind feels better, how do you feel? _Blugun asked me.

"I'm feeling much better than I did this morning. But I still can't walk all that much." I told Blugun. "Hopefully I will feel better by tomorrow morning."

_Yes, that would be best._ Blugun said to me. _Mando approaches._

_Okay, thanks for telling me._ I said to Blugun.

_You're welcome._ Blugun replied.

I waited for a minute or so and then Manny knocked on my door. Before I could stand up to open it, Blugun gripped the knob with his tail and then opened the door. Manny walked in and then he sat down next to me on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" Manny asked me.

"Much better, but I still don't feel all to well." I told Manny.

"Well, at least you're getting better." Manny told me. "So, are you ready to learn what we learned today in class?" I nodded and then Manny closed his eyes and I followed suit. I opened my mind to the elf and then he connected his mind to mine and he shared his memories with me.

In fighting class we just did even more sparring. In magic class, Silina had told Claire and Manny more about the golden flame. According to the memories that Manny gave me, the golden flame had been created by Eragon close to four hundred years ago with help from the queen of the elves, Arya.

They had made the flame so that they will know whether or not that there can actually be teams of riders. Since that visit, Arya had only visited once more. That memory came with a bit of sadness from Manny.

I questioned Manny about the sadness and he said to me "Arya is the love of Eragon's life. Because of how she is the queen, she almost never gets to visit Eragon. That saddens not only Eragon, but also Saphira because she can't see Arya's dragon, Firnen. Saphira has laid three clutches of Firnen's eggs. Saphira and Firnen are the parents to ten dragons. Two of those eggs haven't hatched yet and Firnen and Saphira are both worried about them." Manny said to me. "It has been making everybody worry."

"I didn't know about that." I said to Manny. "So who did the other eggs hatch for?" I asked Manny.

"All of the dragons hatched to great riders. One of them used to be teacher here, but then he went exploring with his yellow dragon, Kira. Kira was in the first clutch of eggs." Manny told me. "Last I heard, he was in the Beor mountains."

"Cool." I said to Manny. "So is that all that was taught today?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Manny said to me. "Well, I should be heading out. See you later."

"Thanks for telling me what we learned today." I said to Manny. "See you later."

Manny left the room and closed the door behind himself. I looked over to Blugun and saw that he had his eyes closed. I searched his mind for a couple seconds and saw that he was sleeping and dreaming of hunting.

I pulled myself out of his mind and then I laid back down in bed and covered myself up. Then I went to sleep and dreamed of random stuff until morning.

I woke up feeling much better the next morning. I shut off the small alarm and then re-wound it. I stood up, stretched, and then went to the tub and took a quick bath. Once I was done, I dried off and shaved using a few words from the ancient language.

Before I could get dressed someone knocked on the door. I heard the doorknob start turning before I could say anything. As the door opened, Blugun held out a wing and then I jumped behind it.

"Sorry to barge in like this but I need to ask you something." Claire said to me as she walked into the room. "What's going on in here?" Claire asked me as she saw how I was hiding behind the large wing.

"Well, I just got out of the tub and I was about to get dressed when you walked in." I told her.

"Oh, so you're naked right now?" Claire asked me as she started blushing.

"Yeah, I'm naked right now." I told Claire.

Claire stammered for several seconds and then she said "I am so sorry, I will be waiting outside. Just yell when you're ready." Then she hurried out of the room.

I heaved a sigh as Blugun folded his wing back up. "Thanks buddy, that could have been very bad." I said to the dragon.

I started to get dressed and while I was doing so, Blugun said to me _I think that there should be a lock on your door._

"Agreed." I said to him as I pulled on my black jerkin. I went to the door and opened it to find Claire repeatedly hitting herself on the forehead with a very dark blush on her face. "You can come in now." Claire jumped in the air, her blush getting even darker, if that was even possible.

"Okay." Claire said to me as she followed me into my room. I sat down on the edge of my bed and Claire sat down next to me. "Sorry about just coming in earlier. I was just really excited about something and I didn't think."

"It's alright, just next time please wait for me to say whether or not you can come in." I said to Claire.

"Okay, I'll be sure to remember that." Claire said to me. "Well, the reason why I came down here to talk to you is because I had heard that a dragon egg had hatched to someone in the town that you were from. I was wondering if you knew who it was. The guy's name is Conner, so do you know him?"

"Do you know whether or not the guy was tall and had short blond hair?" I asked Claire.

"No, all I know is his first name." Claire told me.

"Well, there was several people named Conner that last time I was there. There was a couple of teenagers, one or two adults and a little kid." I told Claire. "It couldn't have been one of the adults, the age limit for being in a dragon hatching is eighteen so it had to have been one of the teenagers or the kid." I said to Claire.

"Which one do you want it to be?" Claire asked me.

"Well, one of the teenagers is one of the guys who bullied me before I became a rider so I definitely hope it's not him. The other teenager I don't know all that well but the kid, I know him very well. I used to watch over him when he was younger. He was a pretty good kid so I think that he would make a very good rider. I hope he is the new rider. Did you hear anything else?" I asked her.

"No, not really. Well, you ready for some breakfast?" Claire asked me.

"Yeah, I'm definitely ready for some food." I said to her.

"Alright, I'll see if Manny is ready and then we will leave." Claire said to me as she stood up. "See you in a minute." Claire said as she left the room.

I went to my door and grabbed my boots then I slipped them on and went outside. I waited at the base of the stairs for a few minutes and then Claire came down from Manny's room.

"Manny is sick today." Claire said to me. "I'm guessing that you gave him whatever you had yesterday."

"Wow, that sucks." I said to her. "I'm going to have to apologize to him when we get back from breakfast."

"Lets get going." Claire said to me as she started walking. I nodded and then started to follow her. We were soon at the eating hall and were sitting and eating. Soon after, we were back on our way to our building.

Claire went to her room and I went to Manny's room. I knocked on the door and waited for Manny's call for me to come in. I opened the door and looked around for Manny. I found him curled up on Wendur's bed.

Manny looked awful. He was paler than usual, he was sweating, his nose was running and he was coughing. "Damn dude, you look terrible." I told the elf.

"I feel terrible." Mando told me.

"Do you feel well enough to eat?" I asked him as I held up the wrapped food that I was carrying.

Manny shook his head as his body heaved. He pulled a trashcan closer to himself and then he vomited into the can.

"Gross." I said as Manny pulled his head out of the can.

"Yeah, it sure is." Manny said to me as he laid back down. I set the wrapped food on the table and then I sat down on a chair.

"Sorry about making you sick." I said to Manny. "After classes I'll come back and tell you what we learned."

"Okay, thanks." Manny said to me. I was about to say something more but Manny started snoring. I touched his mind and saw that he had actually fallen asleep.

I silently left the room and then closed the door behind me. as I was walking down the stairs, Wendur flew to his door, hovered in the air while his tail opened the door and then he went into his room with Mando.

I went into my room and started to get my armor on. While I was putting my helm on Blugun came into the room.

_I heard you got Mando sick._ Blugun said to me.

"Yeah, it really sucks. Hopefully Claire won't have it tomorrow." I said to Blugun.

_Agreed._ Blugun said to me. _So you ready to leave?_

"Yeah, lets go." I said to the dragon.

_You want a ride to class? _Blugun asked me

"Sure." I said to Blugun. I hopped up on Blugun's back and then Blugun opened the door with his tail and then he hopped out of the room. While he hovered in the air I quickly closed the door with magic. And then Blugun he soared over the rest of the building and to my fist class. Blugun landed near the clearing and then I hopped down, thanked him and waved as he flew off to his own class.

Luna landed a minute or so later and then Claire jumped off and did the same as me.

Claire and I took off our swords and set them down on the table and then we grabbed one of the sticks and waited for Samson to arrive.

Several minutes later Samson walked onto the field. "Good morning students. Where is Mando?"

"He's sick today. I think I gave him what I had yesterday." I said to Samson.

"Well that's not good. I had planned on showing you three a new fighting technique today." Samson said to us. "It's an advanced and difficult move and I will need all three of you here in order to teach it. Oh well, it can't be helped. For today, just spar until the end of class." Then Samson sat down on his stool and watched as Claire and I spared, giving a suggestion every now and then.

I was definitely getting better. I was usually the only one to leave with bruises but today, Claire had a few of her own.

Claire and I ate lunch, and before we went to our second class, we dropped some food off for Manny.

When we got to our magic class Silina was sitting in her usual spot. Claire and I sat down in our own usual spot.

"I'm guessing that Mando is sick today." Silina said to us.

"Yes, Ebrithil. I think I gave him what I had yesterday." I said to Silina.

"Well, that is a shame. Did anybody tell you what we went over yesterday?" she asked me.

"Yeah, Manny did. I'm guessing that that is when I gave my sickness to him." I said to my teacher.

"Hm. Well then, lets get started on today's class." Silina said to us. "As you both know, there are countless ways to kill with magic. Over the years, we have made many advances in not only ways to heal people but also ways to kill people. Long ago, there were only about ten words of death. I can't ever remember exactly how many there used to be but now there are countless words you can use. The large number of ways to kill somebody has made it difficult to cast something call a ward."

"I've heard of wards." I said to Silina. "Septimus, my first magic teacher, talked about them for a week or so. He told me not to try and do anything with them until I got stronger."

"That was good advice. Sometimes a rider will try to protect themselves with a ward but the ward may eventually kill him. Somebody may try to keep some kind of germs out of his body but the germs will be in the air and that means that the air will be kept out of him."

"Whoa, now I'm very glad that I didn't try to experiment with wards." I said to Silina and Claire.

"Yes, you must always be very careful when attempting to cast a ward because it could very easily backfire on you. Today, I want you two to cast a very simple ward. It is one that will stop arrows from striking you." Silina told us. Silina reached into her bag and pulled out two scrolls. Silina handed each of us a scroll then I unrolled it and read it.

The scroll had four lines of writing on it. the top line was in our own language and the bottom was in the ancient language.

"This is the ward I want you to cast. But, before you cast it I want to explain it all to you that way you won't mess up." Silina said to us.

The next hour was spent with Silina explaining how to pronounce all the difficult words, how to cast a ward onto yourself, and the dangers of casting a ward incorrectly.

"I think that you are now ready to cast the ward." Silina said to us. "Remember to concentrate very hard and to pronounce every word correctly."

"Got it." I said to Silina. I thought over all that we had learned as well as the incantation I had to cast for the ward.

"Are you two ready?" Silina asked us.

"I'm ready." I said to Silina.

"As am I." Claire said to Silina.

"Good, now begin." Silina said to us.

I took a deep breath and then I tapped into my magic and started to chant in the ancient language.

A minute later I finished the incantation and I then felt a drain in my energy. I looked over to Claire and saw that that she was still chanting.

I remained quiet until she finished and I saw her stoop over slightly. "Do you think it worked?" I asked Claire.

"I hope so." Claire said to me.

"Well, there is a way to test it." Silina said to us. I looked over to her and saw her standing up with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other.

"Are you really saying that you will shoot us with a bow?" Claire asked Silina.

"Yes, but only if you want me to." Silina said to us with a nod.

I thought about it for a few seconds and then I stood up and held my arms out. "Do it, I want to see whether or not my ward will work."

Silina nodded and then she nocked the arrow and drew the bow back a short ways. "Are you sure?" she asked me. I nodded and then I closed my eyes. I heard the twang of the bow string being released and then I heard something strike the ground in front of me. I opened my eyes and looked down at myself. I was completely unharmed, and the arrow was lodged into the dirt in front of my feet.

"That was scary." I said to Silina and Claire as I pulled the arrow out of the ground. I handed the arrow to Silina and then I sat down in my chair.

"My turn." Claire said as she stood up. Claire did the same as I did and closed her eyes and held her arms out. Silina nocked the arrow again and then she drew back a little bit and then released the arrow. The arrow flew at Claire's thigh and then it bounced away from her several inches away from her skin, then the arrow flew at me instead. I just saw a blur as the arrow flew for my face and then bounced off my ward and then went into the ground again.

"You're right, that was scary." Claire said to me.

"It was scarier for me than it was for you." I said to Claire.

Claire looked at me with a confused and worried look. "Are you alright? You look very pale." Claire said to me.

"Yeah, I'm alright thanks to my ward. When the arrow bounced off of your ward, the arrow shot straight to my face. Thanks to my wards, I was safe." I said to Claire.

"I am so sorry." Claire said to me. "How many times am I going to mess up today?" Claire said to me as she smacked herself on the forehead.

"Don't worry," I said to Claire as I set a hand on her shoulder. "I'm perfectly alright."

"Are you sure?" she asked me.

I nodded and said "Of course I'm sure." Then Claire smiled and sat down.

"That will be all for today. It is only about ten minutes until dinner so just relax until then. Farewell." Silina said to us as she stood up and left.

The two of us continued sitting and resting until it was time for dinner. Once it was time, we left the field and went on our way to the eating hall. We quickly ate and then went back to our building. I went to Manny's room again and Wendur opened the door for me. Manny was lying face down in his bed and he was snoring loudly.

I connected to Wendur's mind and then I said to him _I have some food for Manny._ I held up the wrapped food.

_Thank you, you can set it down on the table. I will tell Manny about it when he wakes up. _Wendur said to me.

_Is it alright if I share my memories of today's classes with you that way you can show them to Manny when he wakes up? _I asked the dragon.

_Yes, that is alright with me. _Wendur said to me. I focused and then showed Wendur all that had happened in class today. _Thank you for this, I will show it to Wendur once he wakes. See you later, Josh._

_Yeah, see you later._

I left the room and went to my own room. Blugun was in there, scratching his large scaly hide with one of his claws.

_How were classes today? _Blugun asked me.

"They went very well." I said to Blugun. "We learned about wards today in magic class, but all we really did in fighting class was spar. I'm getting better at fighting. How have your classes been going?"

_They have been going very well. I am still the best flyer, and I am also getting better at fighting._

"That is very good to hear." I said to Blugun. "I am very proud of you." I set a hand against Blugun's side and he hummed in appreciation. "Well, I'm going to get to bed." I said as I patted Blugun.

I took off my armor, put it up and then leaned my sword against the wall beside my bed. I got dressed for bed and then I crawled underneath my covers and was soon asleep.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please stay with me as I continue to write this story down. Please have a nice day.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Because of what happened with the last chapter, I made sure that I had this chapter done and posted by today. Well, I hope you enjoy chapter 7 as much as I enjoyed writing it. have fun and please leave a review once you finish reading.**

The next morning I woke up and then shut down and re-wound my alarm. I sent my mind up to Manny and saw that he was feeling better. _Did Wendur give you the lessons from yesterday? _I asked Mando.

_Yeah, he gave me the memories of it yesterday when I woke up to eat. _Manny said to me.

_Good, see you later._ I said to him.

_Yeah, see you later._ I pulled out of Manny's mind and went into Blugun's mind.

_Good morning, Blugun. _I said to the dragon.

_Good morning, Josh._ Blugun said to me. _Is Manny feeling better?_

_Yes, he is. I'm going to check and make sure that Claire is healthy. _I said to the dragon as I stretched my mind up through Manny's room and to the top floor. I encountered Luna's mind, said good morning to her and then I went to Claire and knocked on her barriers.

Claire let me in and I felt from her mind that she was healthy and then just to be sure I asked her whether or not she felt fine.

_Yeah, I feel fine. Thankfully I didn't catch what you and Manny had._ Claire told me.

_Good. Well, I had better get ready for breakfast._ I said to Claire in her mind._ See you later._

_Okay, see you later._ Claire said to me.

I returned to my mind and then started to get up and get ready. I took a quick bath and then got dried off, shaved and then slipped on some clothes. I went to my door, grabbed my boots and slipped them on and then I went out side with Blugun.

I sent my mind back to the building and saw that Manny was just then putting his boots on and Claire was brushing her hair.

After several more seconds Manny came out of his room and Wendur flew out of the room as well. Wendur closed the door with his tail and then he landed next to Blugun. The four of us waited a couple more minutes until Claire came out of her room with Luna. The six of us went to breakfast and ate our food, and then we returned to our building.

Manny and I went into my room and continued to work on the enchantment for Claire's ring. We finished with all the words that needed to be used, and then we started working on the pronunciation of the incantation.

We didn't get far by the time we had to start getting ready for our fighting class. Manny went to his own room and then I started to put my armor on. I left my room with my helm in my hand. As I walked to my class, I buckled on my helm.

When I got to the field, the only other person there was Claire.

I took my sword off and then picked up a stick. Claire and I took several paces away from each other then we stood at the ready position and this time, I struck first. I swung for her left; she parried my attack and then swung for my left. I ducked and then swung for her legs, Claire jumped up and back. She knelt to the ground, picked up a fistful of dirt and then threw it at me. I closed my eyes and then jumped to my right and rolled.

I opened my eyes in time to see Claire swinging at me, I swung my stick up and Claire's stick caught on my guard. I jumped to my feet and then leaped back. I watched Claire's every movement, waiting to see an opening in her movements.

I saw none, so I made one. I kicked a small rock at Claire and she immediately looked down at it. I rushed forward and swung at her shoulder but she barely managed to block my stick. I spun around and swung at her other shoulder. Claire tried to block my attack, but she didn't get her stick high enough in time and my stick hit her in the shoulder with a loud smack as the wood of the stick hit the hardened leather.

"Good shot." Claire said to me. We continued fighting and I managed to get several more hits on her and she also managed to hit me. One of her hits got me in the back of the head after which my head started to bleed. We stopped the fight, I healed my head and then we continued our battle.

We stopped fighting when Samson finally arrived. I looked into the sky and measured the position of the sun to figure out what time it was. Samson was about an hour late for class.

"Sorry for being late, I had something that had to be dealt with." Samson said to us as he un-buckled his sword. "Today, I will be teaching you guys a complicated attack. It is one of the original attacks that Brom taught to Eragon so it is very special." Samson put his sword with the rest of the swords and then he picked up a stick.

"Get into the ready position." Samson said to us. We mimicked his stance and then Samson started the lesson. First he showed us the attack, and then he did it very slowly and we tried to mimic his actions. Then Samson bent at a weird angle and the only one of us able to do that was Manny but after a bit of stretching Claire and I managed to twist to the correct angle.

Once Samson was satisfied that we were doing it correctly, he had us try to do the attack at full speed. I fell on my ass in the middle of the attack, Claire caught herself before she crashed to the ground and Manny lost his balance for a few seconds.

"That was pretty good for a first try. Try it once more and then you may leave for lunch." Samson said to us. I took a deep breath and tried the attack again. This time, I fell on my face. I held my injured nose as I got up to my feet.

"This is going to take some time for me to get the hang of." I said to Claire and Manny.

Claire giggled a little and Manny smiled. Claire came over to me and said to me "Here, let me see your nose." I removed my hand and then Claire poked it in several places. Then she squeezed the bridge of my nose and I winced a little as a little pain shot through my face. "Your nose is just a little bruised. It should be better by tomorrow."

"Good, thanks for taking a look at it." I said to Claire.

"You're welcome. Well, lets get to lunch." Claire said to Manny and I.

"Yeah, lets go." Manny said to us as he led the way to the eating hall. We soon reached the eating hall and went inside. A while later we left the building and headed over to our next class.

Silina was standing in at the edge of the field with her hand against the trunk of the tree. As I saw her straiten, I also saw the tree start to lean down and a few of the leaves fell to the ground.

_What in the hell was that? _I said to myself in the confines of my mind.

Manny got Silina's attention by clearing his throat.

"Welcome students. You are early, have you eaten lunch?" Silina asked us.

I nodded and said "We just finished eating."

"Good. Mando, did anybody give you yesterday's lesson?" Silina asked the elf.

"Yeah," Manny said to Silina. "Josh gave them to Wendur while I was sleeping and then when I woke up Wendur gave them to me."

"Have you attempted to cast the ward?" Silina asked him.

"No, I wanted to make sure I did it right so I waited until now that way you could watch over me and make sure I do it right." Manny said to Silina.

Silina nodded and then said to Manny "Very good decision. Do you need a scroll for the incantation?" Silina asked Manny as she pulled out a scroll from her bag.

"Yeah, I'll need one." Manny said to Silina. Silina handed the scroll to Manny and then he unrolled it and read it. Once he was done reading it, he closed his eyes and then mumbled in the ancient language. After he was done he opened his eyes and looked over at Silina. "I altered the incantation and now the arrow will fly back at the one who shot it so I don't think that it will be that good of an idea to do the test on me." Manny said to Silina.

I looked over at Silina and saw that she was holding the bow again with an arrow in her hand. Silina smiled and said to Manny "Very good, but I still want to make sure that you did the ward correctly so if it is alright with you, I would still like to do the test."

"Very well," Manny said as he stood up. "Do it." Silina nocked the arrow and then drew back a little bit and shot it at Manny's thigh. The arrow got a few inches from his skin and then it swerved in a tight curve and flew back at Silina. Once the arrow was a foot away from Silina the arrow burst into flames.

"Very good, Manny." Silina said as she un-strung the bow, and then set it on the ground next to her. "I hadn't expected anybody to alter their ward. You have done a very nice job, all three of you." Silina said to us. "Today, I want all three of you to work together to make a ward that will keep you from getting hit by fire. It is a simple thing to do and it shouldn't take that much time." Silina pulled out a large piece of blank parchment from her bag as well as an inkwell and a quill. She handed all of the stuff to me and said "You have until the end of the class to get this done. Begin."

Manny used the ancient language and made the ground flow out from beneath us and make a table for us to work on.

I set the supplies on the table and then the three of us worked on the fire ward.

As we were nearing the end of class, we finally finished and then I was somehow nominated to test the ward. I cast the ward, and then Claire called up a silver flame using brisingr and then she held the flame close to my face. The flame seemed to hit a barrier and flow around me. I could still feel most of the warmth from the fire but it did not touch me.

"It works." I said to Claire, Manny and Silina. "You guys should cast it as well."

Manny and Claire spent the next few minutes casting the ward on themselves and then we tested the ward on each other. I made a huge fire and then blew it all over Manny, at his request. The flames blew around Manny and he walked out of the flames unscathed.

"Cool." I said to him. "Do it to me now."

Manny smiled, said brisingr and called up his green flames. He made the fire in his hand huge, almost two times the size of the one I had used on him. "You want them this big or smaller?" Manny asked me.

"That's perfect. Do it." I said to Manny. Mando nodded and then he lowered his hand until it was pointed at me. Manny blew the flames at me. The fire flew at me like a tidal wave. When it got close to me I flinched and then I watched as the flames passed around me. I walked to my left and then poked my head out of the side of the flames and smiled at Manny. I laughed and said to him "This is awesome!" I had to shout to be heard over the sound of the roaring fire.

Manny ended the flames and then I walked over to him and looked at the spot where the flames had been. The grass was burnt to a crisp.

"You two are insane." Claire said to us with a laugh.

The three of us laughed and then I said "Thanks, it's a lot of fun. Being sane is so boring." We laughed even more.

I looked over to Silina and said "Sorry about the grass. We were having so much fun I forgot about what it would do to the grass."

"It's alright." Silina said to us. "I will re-grow the grass later. For now, go on to dinner and enjoy tomorrow. Have fun on your day off. Farewell." Then Silina walked off through the trees. Manny, Claire and I went off to dinner, then we returned to the building where Manny and I finished the enchantment for Claire's ring.

Using my mind, I called Claire down to my room and then Manny and I took her ring and put the enchantment on it. We put as much energy into the enchantment as we could, and then when it was done, we gave the ring back to Claire and then she slipped it on and tried it out. Claire didn't make a sound as she walked around the room.

"Awesome! It worked!" I said as I watched Claire sneak around the room.

"Cool, so now we can go hunting and get some energy to put in our rings." Claire said.

"Yeah, you want to go tonight?" Manny asked us.

"That's alright with me." I said to Manny and Claire.

"Yeah, lets go." Claire said. "I'm eager to test the ring outside."

The three of us left our building and then we went outside and walked into the trees. We all went as silent as we could, and then I sent my mind out and encountered a large number of animals minds. I went towards a rabbit burrow where I felt the minds of five rabbits. Manny went off to my left and Claire went to my right.

Once I got close to the rabbits I cast a paralyze spell on the rabbits, and then I went to the burrow and dug up the dirt that covered the animals. I found three large rabbits and two smaller rabbits. I touched each one, taking as much energy as I could without killing the animal.

I used magic and fixed the burrow. I cast my mind out and tried to find some more animals. There weren't any more nearby, nothing but bugs.

I remembered what I had seen Silina doing with the tree and then I held a hand against a nearby tree and felt energy slowly moving through it. I remembered how the tree had started to wilt and how Silina had started to stand up straighter.

I closed my eyes and then I reached into the tree and then grabbed at the energy that was slowly moving through it. I started to slowly pull the energy out of the tree, into my body, and then into my ring. Again, I took as much energy out of the tree without killing it. It was a lot of energy and so I went to another tree and did the same. I repeated the process ten more times and then sent my mind out to Manny and Claire to see how they were doing.

_Not good, I have barely gotten any energy from the animals I have found. _Claire said to me.

_Same here._ Manny said to me.

_I've gotten a lot of energy. Meet me back here and then I will tell you something that I learned how to do._ I told Manny and Claire. They took several minutes but they were soon by my side and then I explained what I had done and how I had learned how to do it.

"I never knew we could do this." Manny said to me.

"Me neither. I also think that we were never supposed to know about it. Imagine if our enemies learned about this, we would soon be overtaken and the world would soon run out of trees and all kinds of other things that grow." I said to Manny and Claire. "We have to keep this a secret, just like the Amethyst Dragon."

"Agreed. I say we get the energy from several more trees and then we go to bed." Claire said to us.

"Yeah, lets do it." Manny said.

"I've got plenty of energy from the trees. I'm good for tonight." I said to Manny and Claire. Claire and Manny went in separate directions and then they each spent several minutes at several trees and then returned to me. "You guys ready to leave?" I asked them.

"Yeah, trees have a lot of energy so I have more than enough energy for a while." Claire said to me.

"Lets go and get to bed. I'm tired and I really want to lay my head down." Manny said to us.

I led the way back to our building and then we went our separate ways and we all went to bed, but first I told Blugun about what I had discovered. I also wound my alarm clock a few more times that way I could wake up in time for lunch.

That night I dreamt of a desert, in the middle of a sandstorm. My entire dream was filled with strong winds, burning hot temperatures and sand flying through the air.

I woke up and then clapped my hand over the alarm to shut it off. I sat up in bed and scratched my head. One of my claws dug down a bit to deep and I felt a small bit of pain. I pulled my hand away and inspected my claws. There was a small drop of blood on my middle claw. I wiped the blood away on my blanket and then I undressed and took a bath. Afterwards I dried off and shaved with a quick spell.

I got dressed and then went outside, stroking the sleeping Blugun's tail on the way out. I stretched in the sun and then sent my mind into Claire's and Manny's rooms. They were both awake but they were still getting ready.

I used a spell and went to the roof. I relaxed in one of the chairs up there until my friends left their room. I drifted down to the ground and then followed them as we walked to lunch.

We piled our plates high, took our time eating, and then we left the building. Then the three of us returned to our building where we found our dragons lounging on the roof, soaking up the sun. I joined my dragon up there and lied down next to Blugun. Manny and Claire did the same as I did and then also lied down next to their dragon.

I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, the sun was in the position that meant two in the afternoon. I looked around and saw that Blugun and I were the only ones up here now.

As I got up, Blugun woke up as well. He stretched like a cat and then he yawned.

_It was very nice to take a nap in the sun. I understand why cats and dogs love it so much. _I said to Blugun as I stretched my stiff muscles.

_Yeah, it is very relaxing._ Blugun said to me. _Do you want to fly for a while?_

_Sure, lets go._ I said to Blugun as I climbed up on his back. Blugun stretched out his wings, and then he flapped a few times and leapt off of the building, gliding on a current of warm air.

Blugun soared smoothly, his every movement was calm. It lulled me into a sort of half sleep. Blugun flew over the river and his flight movements changed smoothly and he continued to glide over the water.

Blugun started to fly in the direction of the lake and it wasn't long before I heard the shouting of the riders and the growls and roars of the dragon that were playing in the water.

Blugun flew slowly over the lake and we watched all the others have fun. _ Do you want to go swimming?_ Blugun asked me.

_Sure, how about you?_ I asked him.

_Yeah, lets go. Get ready to dive._ Blugun said to me as he aimed at en empty part of the lake. Blugun shot down and then hit the water like an arrow. We went down deep into the water and then Blugun continued swimming deeper. Then he aimed his head up and then he used his wings as well as his legs and tail to swim upward.

When we burst out of the water, we came out with so much force that we actually flew out of the water. We went about ten feet in the air and then Blugun shot back down into the water. When Blugun re-surfaced I relieved my aching lungs and then shook my hair out. We laughed and then I said to him _I can't believe how high you shot up out of the water! Have you ever gone that high before when coming up?_

_No, and that was amazing! I wasn't expecting to fly out of the water._ Blugun said to me with a laugh. _You want to try it again?_

_Hell yeah!_ I said to the dragon through our mental link.

Blugun flapped his wings several times and lifted out of the water, the waves caused from his flapping wings hit several other riders and dragons and then they also pushed waves at us, laughing the whole time.

Blugun flew up even higher than he had been before and then he shot down for the same place he had dived before. Again we shot down, Blugun swam deep down, so deep that his claws hit the bottom of the lake. Then using all the power Blugun had, he swam up to the surface.

Blugun exploded out of the water and flew nearly twenty feet in the air. Blugun snapped his wings open and then drifted down to the beach. Blugun landed with a loud thump and then he laid his head and wings down on the ground, and then the rest of his body followed. Swimming underwater must have really taken it out of him, the dragon was exhausted.

Several riders and dragon came over to us and asked if Blugun was alright.

"Yeah, he's alright. Blugun is just tired from swimming so hard and so fast underwater." I said to the people around us. "Blugun had flown up and then dived down into the water as deep as he could go, and then he swam even deeper. Then Blugun pulled up and swam upwards. He did this twice. Did you not see how he blasted out of the water and flew up in the air?"

"Yeah, that was pretty cool. So no magic was used on that, it was nothing but swimming?" an elf rider asked me.

I nodded and then said "Yeah, nothing but swimming. You guys should try it, it was a lot of fun. It may be exhausting in the end but I think it was totally worth it. Blugun, do you think all the fun was worth being so tired?" I asked my dragon.

Blugun opened one of his eyes and then he said to me _Yes, it was without a doubt worth it. I wish I could go again, but sadly I'm far to tired._

"Blugun says that it was worth it." I said to the riders and dragons around us. "You should definitely try it."

A couple of the riders jumped up onto the back of a dragon and then the dragon took off. The rest of the riders and dragons went back into the water. Some met up with others and then they also flew up into the air. The rest must have decided to just swim around because they kept playing in the water.

_Do you want to return to our room?_ I asked Blugun.

_No, I want to lie down on the roof and take a nap in the sun._ Blugun said to me.

_I don't have much, but do you think that the energy I have in me is enough to get you to the roof? I left my ring back in the room so sadly you can't get any energy from that._

_I think the energy you have would be enough to get us off of the beach and into the air. After that I could probably glide to the roof. Go ahead and give me the energy and lets try it._ Blugun said to me.

I held a hand against Blugun's nose and then I transferred all the energy I could without passing out. Blugun stood up, scratched his head for a second with one of his claws and then he gently picked me up in one of his front claws and then he flapped his wings a few times, then he was up in the air and slowly flying through the air. Just as Blugun had said he would do, he glided over to our building, but he was flying to low to be able to get to the roof so he had to flap several times to get to the right elevation.

Blugun landed on the roof and then he collapsed, almost crushes one of the chairs that were up there. It was mere seconds before Blugun fell asleep and I soon joined him, but I first got off of him and leaned back against one of his legs.

I was woken up by Manny shaking my shoulder and saying "Dude, time to get up. It's time for dinner."

I opened my eyes, then blinked a few times. I stood up, stretched and then sat back down because I had stretched to much and was dizzy.

"I did the same exact thing this morning." Manny told me as he helped me to my feet. "Come on dude, lets get going. I'm hungry and I'm not leaving without you."

I connected myself to Blugun's mind and saw that he was still in a deep sleep. There was no way he was going to be waking up any time soon.

"Alright, Manny, I'm up." I said as I rubbed my face and pulled myself out of Blugun's mind.

We both used a spell and then we drifted down to the ground. "I'll be right back." I said to Manny ad I hurried into my room. I grabbed my ring, slipped it on and then left the room.

Manny and I hurried to the eating hall and grabbed some food. Once we were done eating we went out into the trees and waited for Claire. Once she joined us, we started to collect even more energy. When we were done, I had the energy from a total of twenty five trees, counting the trees from the first night we had gotten the energy.

We all returned to our rooms, where I found Blugun sprawled out on the floor snoring loudly. I climbed into bed and was soon asleep.

I woke up and shut off my alarm, then I rewound it.

I took a bath, got some clean clothes on that had been washed and delivered last night while I was asleep.

I sent my mind up to Manny and Claire and saw that they were almost ready. I grabbed my ring, slipped it on and then put on my boots. Blugun followed me out of the building and then the two of us walked to the eating hall. When we got there, we waited for Manny and Claire.

Once they arrived, riding Wendur and Luna we went inside and ate. Then we returned to our building and practiced our wards and the move that Samson was teaching us.

When it came time for us to get ready for class, we all went into our rooms, put our armor on, strapped on our swords and left the building and made our way to our class.

That day, we continued to practice on the technique, and in our magic class we were given another list of the ancient language and then we went over more wards and we had to make a ward that would stop a blade from hitting us.

We did this for the rest of the week, during which I finally did the technique without falling, only losing my balance a little bit, Manny and Claire were performing the technique almost perfectly. The three of us had all kinds of wards now, not only to protect us from enemies, but also to protect us from ourselves.

Every night we went to the trees and gained more energy from the surrounding growth. I had found a large group of deer sleeping among the trees. I had used a spell that I had improvised from the ward that we had put on Claire's ring and then I snuck up to each deer and before I touched it, I cast a paralyze spell on each one. I got a huge amount of energy from all seven of the deer as well as some energy from the trees that the deer had been sleeping around.

The amount of energy I had stored up in my ring was a vast amount, more than enough for anything I could ever dream of doing.

It was the middle of the night on our free day and we were all meeting up in our little cave.

Blugun and I were the first ones inside, then Wendur and Manny came in, closely followed by Luna and Claire.

"Alright guys, as you all remember, it has been a while since the last time that the Amethyst Dragon has contacted me. I'm starting to get worried, not only for her but also for us." I said to the three dragons and two riders that were around me. "Since there has been no danger here, it could mean that the danger has happened to her instead of us. It could also mean that the danger has not yet happened to us, and it is just lying in wait."

I took a deep breath and continued. "What I need you to do is keep your ears and eyes open. If any of you guys see anything weird or hear anything weird you must tell the rest of us, especially if it has anything to do with the Hadarac Desert. Have any of you heard anything about the desert already? Anything at all?"

"I heard that there was a bandit raid on the edge of the desert, but one of the riders soon came and the bandits were all killed." Claire said to me.

"Alright. That is good to hear." I said to her. "Anything else?" nobody said anything, and I could feel through my mental connection with the other dragons that they were all searching through their memory for anything concerning the desert.

All three of the dragons came up with nothing, as did their riders. "Oh well, just please pay attention to all that is around you. Train even harder as well. We must be ready at all times of the day so be sure to carry something with you that has energy in it." I reached into a small pouch that I had brought with me and pulled out three small pieces of meal with a piece of onyx in each one. One of the plates was made of mostly gold, the rest was silver and then the other two plates were entirely made of silver.

"Blugun, Wendur, Luna, will you please bend your head down." I asked the dragons. All three did as I asked and put their heads to my level. "Is it alright if I attach one of these to one of your scales? It will give you somewhere to store energy. You might not be able to use spells, but you can still give and take energy and these small plates each have a gem in them so that you can put energy into them."

_You may attach one to me. _Luna said to me. _Where will you put it?_

"That is entirely up to you. Where do you want me to put it?" I asked Luna.

_Can you attach it to the base of one of my spikes? _Luna asked me. _I would like for it to be on the base of the spike in front of where Claire sits._

I went to Luna's back and set one of the silver plates on the front of the spike that she had asked me about. I said the ancient word for combine and then silver slowly melted into the material of the spike. "It is done." I said to Luna. Luna swung her head around and gazed at the spike and gem.

_It looks beautiful there. It goes very nicely with my scales. Thank you. _Luna said to me while she rubbed her nose against my chest.

"You're welcome, Luna. Wendur, is it alright if I attach one to you as well?" I asked the light green dragon.

_Yes, and I would like it in the same spot._ Wendur told me. I nodded and attached the plate to him in the same spot as I had done for Luna.

Wendur looked at it and hummed in appreciation. He nudged me with his nose and told me thank you. I said "You're welcome, Wendur. Blugun, how about you? Do you want me to put the last plate on you?"

_Yes, Josh. You may put it in the same spot as you did for Luna and Wendur. It can be a sort of badge to show everyone that we are all a team._ Blugun said to me.

I walked over to Blugun and started to work on his plate. While I did, I pondered what he had said about the plate being a badge. Once the plate was attached, I said to the dark blue dragon "You're right, Blugun. These can be badges to show that we are a team. What do you guys think about that?" I asked Wendur, Luna and their riders.

"Wendur and I think that is absolutely perfect." Manny said to me. "I have been thinking about the same thing for a while now. Some way to show that the six of us are all a team. These plates are the perfect thing to do that with."

"Luna and I also love the idea of a badge." Claire said to us. "We are already great friends, and these badges connect us even more to each other. Josh, great idea for the plates and Blugun, great idea to turn them into badges."

"I say we put some kind of design on them, make them so that they aren't so plain." Manny said to me.

"Great idea Manny, but what are we going to do with them?" I asked the elf.

We were all silent for a minute and then Claire said "I have an idea." Then she stood up and went over to Luna. Manny and I waited for her to finish working on the plate and when she called us over we all looked at what she had done.

"Perfect. Absolutely perfect." Manny said as he looked at the plate.

"I agreed. That is magnificent. How did you do that to the gem?" I asked Claire.

Claire smiled and said "That wasn't me. that was Luna. She said that it had happened to your badges as well."

I hurried over to Blugun and then we both looked at the badge that was in his spike. The originally plain gold and silver had been turned into an oval with a dragon in the center. The silver of the badge made up the body and then gold was the wings and the eyes. The dragon was curled around the gem that had originally been an onyx, but was now an amethyst. In the center of the smooth gem was what appeared to be a fire, frozen in the confines of the gem.

"So what now?" Manny asked us. "We have these amazing badges, we know what we are supposed to do, so what do we do until we find a lead on the Amethyst Dragon?"

"There is only one thing we can do." I said to the elf. "We wait."

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter; please review and please have a nice day.**


	8. Chapter 8

The days passed slowly, and with no leads on the Amethyst Dragon. I finally managed to do the attack that Samson was teaching us, and then we continued to practice it until we mastered it. In our magic class we continued to layer on ward after ward, making it so we were practically unable to be touched. Every night, we went out and continued to absorb energy from the trees and animals. Our rings now held a huge amount of energy, more than we could ever dream of. Half of the energy Manny, Claire and I took from nature we gave to our dragons that way they would also have a reserve of energy.

On the morning of the next week, it wasn't my alarm that woke me up. The ground was shaking underneath our building. I sat up and looked around. I heard a crack and looked toward the source of the sound. There was a large crack running up the wall. I looked over at Blugun and he looked back at me. Then the both of us hurried out of the building and looked around.

All the buildings around us had cracks on the walls and the cracks were growing. I hurried back into my room and quickly got out of my sleeping clothes and put some clothes on as well as my armor. I strapped on my belt as I reached the door. I put my boots on and then went back outside.

Around me, there were other riders in their armor as well as several dragons with their own large armor on them.

"Weren't you supposed to have armor?" I asked Blugun.

_Yes, but I asked the armor smith to hold onto it until I needed it._ Blugun told me.

"Lets go and get your armor." I said to Blugun. "I think that you might need it right now."

_Agreed. Get on. _I jumped up on Blugun's back and then he took off and headed to where the smith was located.

Blugun landed there among several other dragons and riders. A few seconds after Blugun landed a bunch of dwarves, humans, elves and Urgals came out from a large building holding large loads of armor. The armor was dropped in front of a dragon nearby and the rider quickly started to put the armor on her dragon. I jumped down and helped her. When we were done, several other dragons had gotten their armor and the smiths were getting Blugun's armor at the moment.

The rider I helped thanked me and then she hopped up on her dragon and then they took off. I turned back to Blugun and waited for a couple minutes until the smiths dropped off Blugun's armor. With the help of Manny who had showed up as well we quickly got the armor on Blugun. And then we waited until Wendur's armor was dropped off and then we put that armor on as well. We then left and returned to the building where Claire was waiting for us with Luna, fully armored and on the roof.

"What do you think is going on?" Claire asked us when we landed on the roof.

"It might just be an earthquake, and if I didn't have a mind that I can expand then that's what I would have originally thought." Manny said to us. "But when I sent my mind out into the ground, I felt magic at work. Somebody else is doing this, but I don't know who."

The sound of huge wings being flapped filled the sky. I looked up and saw a huge shadow filling the sky and blocking out the sun.

"Saphira." Manny said as he looked up at the shadow.

Eragon's voice boomed out over the area. "Remain calm, riders. The elder riders are working on what has caused this. Please get on your dragons and then fly up and off of the ground until it stops shaking. We shall be back once we figure out what is going on." Then Saphira flew off in the other direction.

"Damn, this sucks." I said to my friends.

"You can say that again." Claire said as she looked at me. I opened my mouth to comment and then she said "Don't you dare repeat it."

"I didn't plan to. I was just going to say that the saying that you had used is even older than Eragon." I said to Claire. "I didn't think anybody used that saying anymore."

"Me neither." Manny said to us. "Well, we had better get going. What do you say, Wendur? Do you think that we should get going?"

Wendur nodded and then Manny hopped up on his hard black leather saddle. I jumped up onto Blugun, my ass hit the hard dark leather harder than I had expected and it flared with pain. Claire hopped up onto Luna's saddle while I rubbed my ass.

"Hit to hard?" Claire asked me. I nodded and then she said "Me too."

"You guys just need more practice." Manny said to us. I looked over at him and saw him sitting funny on the saddle. "So do I."

"Well, you guys ready to go?" I asked everybody. All three dragons nodded and then so did the other two riders. "Alright then, lets go." All three dragons leapt off of the roof and lifted into the air. I held onto the saddle as Blugun climbed high into the sky. Blugun, Wendur and Luna followed the other dragons and riders as they flew up and away.

When the dragons stopped flying and just hovered in the air, the ground was way below us and everything on it looked like little toys that a bug would play with.

We stayed up there for nearly an hour; several of the younger dragons had started to drift downward due to fatigue. Blugun was still going strong though, and if he needed energy then I would have given him some from the vast reserve I held in my ring. The rider that I had helped to put the armor on her dragon, they had also been drifting down and on their way down I transferred some of my energy to her dragon and the two of them thanked me.

When Saphira flew up into the air with Eragon on her back, all the dragons sighed with relief.

"Attention everybody, you all have ten minutes to get back to the ground, rest your dragon and pack up all your belongings." Eragon called out with a magically enhanced voice. Any conversation there had been was suddenly silenced as everybody heard what Eragon had said. "There are intruders on the island; they have been hiding underground for very many years and they are now threatening the island with these earthquakes. There is no telling what these people are capable of so you must all leave the island and return to your homes. Remember, you have ten minutes. If your dragon needs energy, there will be teachers and elders scattered all around who will be offering energy for your dragon so they can fly. Please hurry and be safe." Then Saphira whirled her enormous body around and flew back to the island.

It was as if all the dragons were frozen in mid-air. I shook Blugun out of his shock and he shot down towards the ground. A large number of dragons followed Blugun and I and the rest soon followed.

Blugun, Luna and Wendur reached the ground in less than a minute and landed on the roof. Manny, Claire and I used magic and floated ourselves down to our room doors and then we hurried into our rooms and quickly started to pack our clothes and belongings.

Seven minutes later I was using magic to lift myself off up and onto the roof, carrying my bags with me slung over my shoulder. I strapped my bags onto Blugun's saddle and then I sent my mind down and contacted Manny and Claire.

Manny was tying the strings to his last bag and Claire was just then closing her door. Less than a minute later Manny, Claire and I were seated on our dragons. Blugun, Luna and Wendur jumped off of the building and started flying towards the mainland.

It was a very long flight; it took most of the day. During the flight, Blugun, Wendur and Luna had to dip down into the water and catch fish so we could eat. The last time they dipped down, they had gotten attacked by some weird water creature with a horn on the top of its head.

When the dragons finally reached land, they dropped to the ground and rested. They had used some of the energy in their badges but that didn't keep the ache in their wings from reaching them.

I went out and hunted down three deer for the dragons and they devoured the creatures and then they fell asleep. There was several other riders and dragons around us, and more were landing on the beach around us.

Manny Claire and I prepared a bed for our exhausted dragons out of large leaves, grass and other soft things that grew around us. The three dragons wearily crawled to the bed and then the three of them curled up together on the bed with plenty of room in the middle of them for the three of us to sleep. We riders climbed into the center of our dragons and then we curled up and fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up with the sun shining and very few clouds in the sky. The birds were chirping, all the animals were calling out to their friends, it was a great morning.

I carefully climbed out of the center of the dragons and then I stretched and looked around. Several of the other teams had done the same as we had, but there were others who were alone, just dragon and rider. There was very few other riders awake at the moment, but the number of awake riders increased by two and Claire and Manny joined me on the beach.

I gathered up some sticks and branches with the help of Manny and Claire and then we lit up a fire and sat around it roasting some berries and nuts that we had found.

"So, we have to go home?" Claire asked us as we ate.

"I guess so." Manny said to Claire.

I looked at my friends in disbelief and then I said to them "Have you three seriously forgotten about what we have been training so hard for?"

"But we could get in trouble for not doing as we were told." Manny said to me. "If we disobey Eragon's direct order there is no telling what he would do to us."

"Claire, Manny, we have been training hard for so Manny weeks now, just so we could come here to Alagaesia to look for the Amethyst Dragon." I said to the two of them. "We have been given an amazing opportunity and we have got to jump on it before it is to late."

"You're right, we have to go and find her." Claire said to me with a nod. "I don't think that we will be given another chance to find her anytime soon."

Manny was silent for several seconds, he just stared into the fire before him as he thought it over. "Very well, I say we also go and find her. But remember, it is still up to Wendur, Blugun and Luna. They are the ones who have to fly us there."

I shook my head and then I said to the elf "You know, for an elf you're not that smart." Manny gave me a puzzled look and then I explained our problem to him. "We are supposed to be going home, not to the Hadarac Desert." I tossed a branch into the fire and then I continued. "We must not be seen by anybody; we must travel by foot."

"What the hell!" Manny cried out. Claire clapped a hand over his mouth as several riders and dragons looked over at us. Claire removed her hand and then in a much quieter voice he said "You seriously mean that we have to travel all the way to the Hadarac desert on foot?"

"Well, Luna, Wendur and Blugun can most likely carry us most of the way but eventually we must travel on foot." I told the elf. I reached into my bag that was nearby and pulled out a map. I unfolded it and then started to figure out where we were. "I think we are right here, directly across the spine from Carvahall." I said as I pointed at the edge of the spin on the map. "Blugun, Wendur and Luna can carry us over the spine and then land in Carvahall for rest and food. Then they can carry us halfway to Gil'ead, from there we will have to walk."

"Well, that doesn't really sound so bad." Manny said to me.

"It looks like a journey that could take more than a month." Claire said to me. Manny groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "This had better be worth it." Claire said to me. "If me don't find her then somebody is going to get torn apart, and it won't be a dragon doing the tearing."

"Don't worry, Claire. We will find her; I just know we will." I said to Claire. Claire and Manny looked at me skeptically. "I understand why you don't quite believe me, but you two must trust me on this."

Claire nodded and said "I have trusted you for this long, so I will continue to trust you."

"As will I" Manny said with a nod of his head. I felt something nudge me on my shoulder and I looked back and saw Luna and Wendur standing there. I looked over at the bed and saw that Blugun was lying there watching us.

"Do you three trust me?" all three dragons nodded and then I felt their minds touch my own. I dropped my barriers and let them all in.

_I trust you, Josh. As do Wendur and Blugun. We all believe that you will help us to find our lost kin. _Luna said to me.

_If there is anybody that can find her, it is to be you._ Wendur said to me through our mental link.

_You already know that there isn't a doubt in my mind that I trust you. _Blugun said to me as he stood up and came over to us, he claws sinking deeply into the sand. _I trust you with my life, and I shall follow your lead until I die._

"Thank you for trusting me." I said to my friends. "I shall not let you down."

Claire smiled at me and said "We know you won't. So, what do you say to us getting on our way?"

We all smiled and then I asked them "What are we waiting for?"

After the dragons had a breakfast themselves we all left the beach and the three dragons soared over the spine with their riders. The flight took almost the entire day and when Blugun, Wendur and Luna landed on the flat piece of land reserved for dragon landings and take-offs, the sun was getting ready to set in the sky.

The three weary dragons walked down the walkway and into the housing area for the large scaly creatures. Blugun, Luna and Wendur laid down in a room each that had a bed for a dragon, a small dresser for the rider's clothing and a bed for the rider.

Claire, Manny and I all walked around the large town and looked through the windows of the shops, curious about what was being sold there. There were all kinds of shops in this small section of Carvahall. According to Manny, this was the market district of the city.

The three of us continued walking and when we reached the housing district we looked around and were amazed at how large the houses were. They were covered in granite and the larger and more expensive looking ones had marble columns with what appeared to be golden veins running through them.

No matter where you were, you could always easily see the castle that sat on top of the hill that overlooked the entire valley. It was the Stronghammer Castle, built by Roran Stronghammer himself. The castle was huge, it had a large wall that surrounded it, a large courtyard inside the walls, a garden outside of the walls, and several towers that jutted out from behind the walls. It truly was an impressive castle, the best that I had ever seen and I had seen quite a few.

"I still can't believe that this place used to be a small town." Manny said to us as we made our way back to Blugun, Wendur and Luna.

"Me neither." Claire said.

"It's all thanks to Roran Stronghammer, the cousin of Eragon." Manny said to us. "Roran first built himself the Stronghammer Castle, and then the shops and houses started to quickly be built around the castle. It wasn't long before even more land had to be cleared to build even more buildings." Manny sighed happily and said "I love this city so much. It was built from the ground up by a legend, and it is also the birth land of Eragon."

"Dude, I think that you're a little obsessed with Eragon." I said to him.

Manny looked at me and said "No I'm not."

"How old is Eragon?" Claire asked him.

"Five hundred and sixty-three years old." Manny said without a second of hesitation. It took him a few seconds to figure out what he had done and when he did, he smacked himself on the forehead. "I don't care what you say, I'm not obsessed."

"How old was Eragon when Saphira hatched for him?" I asked the elf.

"Fifteen." Manny said quickly. "Damn it!" Manny shouted. "Stop asking me questions."

Claire and I laughed and then we walked the rest of the way in silence. When we reached the dragon housing we went our separate ways and then we all went into the rooms that held our dragons. We all went to bed, tired from the long day.

When we woke up, we took a bath in a public bathing area and then went out and bought some supplies with some money that we had gotten from selling some spare stuff we had. And then, we left the city of Carvahall and flew to the east and toward Gil'ead.

On the first night of the flight, when we stopped for the night I suggested something to my friends.

"We may no longer be on Vroengard, but I still say that we practice with our magic and our swords, that way we can continue to get better." I said to them. "We will be on the road for a very long time and it would be best if we continue to better ourselves while on the road. If we don't then we will get soft and then we would be in serious trouble."

Claire and Manny nodded and then Claire said to me "I agree, it would be best if we continue to practice."

"I can help you guys with both magic and sword fighting." Manny said to us. "It's pretty obvious that I'm the best out of both of them so I think that it would be best if I taught you two."

"Yeah, I completely agree." I said to Manny. "But don't let it get to your head."

Manny rolled his eyes and then he said to me "Don't worry, I won't."

The next thing I had to tell them was something I wasn't looking forward to, but I had to bring it up. "Also, I think that we are going to have to start eating meat again." As expected, they started to argue. I waited for them to be silent and then I explained it to them. "We can't live off of the small amount of food that we can scrounge up. We barely had enough for dinner tonight and we can't carry enough food to last us long enough." I took in a deep breath and let it out. "The only logical thing to do is to start eating meat. There are almost always animals around you and with our magic we can easily kill the animal and then eat it. We wouldn't have any troubles with food."

Claire and Manny thought it over and then the both drooped their heads and hunched their shoulders. "I hate to say this, but you're right." Manny said to me. "But I hate seeing the light of their life being extinguished by the cold hand of death."

Claire and I nodded and then I said "I feel he same way but we have no other choice." I stood up and then I said to them "We had better start getting used to it so I'm going to go hunting. Be back in a bit."

I was away for nearly half an hour before I returned. I was carrying several rabbits tied together with some strong and thin vines I had found. I also had several birds and other kinds of small animals. I dropped the carcasses next to the fire and then I pulled out my old hunting knife from one of my saddle bags and started to gut and skin the animals.

Blugun, Claire and Luna wanted what Claire, Manny and I couldn't eat. I gave them several part of the bodies, including bones, guts, intestines and the rest of the stuff we couldn't eat. I set the rabbit furs aside and then I started to treat the meat so that it would stay good for a while. Once I was done, I started to make the furs usable.

Thanks to magic, all of my tasks took very little time. Manny and Claire had watched intently as I had worked, both were constantly asking me questions and I was happy to answer every single one they had.

One of the questions was how I had learned to do all of this. I told them that my old teacher, Septimus had taught it to me as a last resort skill to have for just in case I ever ran low on fruits or vegetables.

Once I was done with all that I had to do I crawled into my sleeping roll and yawned. It was seconds before I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was very early in the morning. The sun was just rising in the sky and there was a large number of birds in the sky. I used a word in the ancient language and then more than half of the birds dropped dead from the sky. I used magic and then all the falling birds were rounded up and then they all fell into one large heap near me.

Using energy that I took from my ring, I de-feathered the birds, and then I took care of everything with the birds and by the time my friends were awake I had a pot of steaming stew over a fire.

I pulled out three wooden bowls and three spoons. I put some stew in all three of the bowls and then I handed one to my friends. They stared at the food and then I took a bite with them watching. I chewed and then swallowed my food. Manny and Claire took a hesitant bite and then their faces lit up with surprise.

"Is it good for you two?" I asked them. "This is the way that Septimus taught me how to cook this."

"It is very good." Claire said to me. "I've never really been much of a meat eater and now that I have actually tried it, it is pretty damn good."

"Same here." Manny said after he took another bite.

I smiled and said "It's good to know that this will work for food. If eating meat didn't work, then there was nothing else that we could have done."

As we ate, Blugun, Wendur and Luna all went out hunting and then they returned with their kills. We all ate our breakfast and then when we were done I put out the fire, cleaned up everything and then we were soon flying again.

During the flight, Manny started with our magic lessons. He taught us even more of the ancient language as well as how to actually talk in the ancient language. The grammar was only slightly different from our own language, but it was still difficult to learn.

When we landed for the night, the three of us sparred for a while and then I went out hunting with Manny and Claire. We came back with a good haul, a large number of small animals as well as several deer that had to be carried back on the back of Blugun.

I started to teach Claire and Manny how to gut and skin an animal and once we were done, we had a large amount of dried meat that could last for a long time and we also had a pretty good amount of animal furs to use.

We had some of the meat for dinner and then we quickly fell asleep.

The next day we reached the point where we had previously agreed on stopping.

"Alright guys, from here we walk." I said to my friends after the dragons had all landed. "Damn this is going to be a long fucking walk."

"Can't we just continue flying for a little longer?" Manny asked me.

I shook my head and said "No, we have to get down when nobody is around to see us." I held a hand against a nearby tree and absorbed its energy. I kept part of it then sent the rest to my ring. I did this several more times and then Manny and Claire did the same as I had done. "I have been seeing dragons flying for the past few hours while we were flying." I told Manny and Claire. "We need to stay down or else they could find us."

"Fine." Manny said as he took the energy from a fifth tree.

Claire took the energy from a seventh tree and then she asked "You guys ready to go?"

I nodded and said "Yeah, lets get going."

Manny, Claire and I had no trouble getting between the trees and other foliage that was around us but Luna, Wendur and Blugun were having troubles maneuvering between the spaces.

_Josh, we are having to much trouble getting around the trees. We are making to much noise and someone will spot us. _Blugun said to me.

"Guys, we have a problem." I said to Claire and Manny. They stopped walking and looked at me. "Blugun says that he, Wendur and Luna are making to much noise." I looked back at Blugun and he nodded. "Can you guys think of anything that we can do to make us more silent?"

"Being silent isn't the only problem, they are still having troubles getting around the trees and everything else." Manny said to us. We were all silent as we thought about what we could do. "The only thing I can think of is for Blugun, Wendur and Luna to stay behind until during the day and then catch up with us under the cover of night."

_I do not like this idea, but it seems like it is the only thing we can do. _Blugun said to me.

I sighed and then said to Blugun _I feel the same way; I do not want to leave you behind but I also think that this is the only thing we can do._ And then I said aloud "Blugun doesn't like the idea but he also thinks that it is the only thing that we can do to remain undetected."

"Luna says the same thing." Claire said.

"As does Wendur." Manny said. "I hate to leave you guys but it is the only thing I can think of."

I hugged Blugun's neck and then I patted his shoulder and said to him "See you later, Blugun." Blugun nudged me with his nose and then I started walking. Claire and Manny joined me after they said their good bye's.

As we walked I looked behind me and looked at Blugun. He was sitting on the ground, watching as we left them.

_I shall see you soon, Josh. Do not worry about me._ Blugun said to me through our mental connection._ You must remember that I am a dragon, the ultimate predator. I shall be fine. I will see you later tonight, farewell._

I nodded at him and then I turned my head back around and continued to walk forward.

By the time the sun rose into the dark night sky, we had traveled farther than I had anticipated. While Blugun, Wendur and Luna flew towards us, I did some more hunting and came back with a handful of rabbits and several squirrels.

I prepared the animals and again thanks to magic, I was soon done. While Manny, Claire and I were eating our dinner, the dragons landed near us and then they joined us. I smiled as I saw that Blugun was alright.

_Did you find some dinner?_ I asked Blugun.

He nodded and then he said to me _I found a deer about an hour ago._

_Good._ I said to Blugun. I finished my food and then I got more food.

Once we were done eating, Claire and I sparred and then Claire and Manny sparred. That night, we all went to bed with bruises from the sparring, all except for Manny.

We continued to do this every day for the next week until we reached the huge city of Gil'ead. While we were outside of the city, the three of us did the same thing that we had done before to make the rings. We made a few balls of gold and then several out of silver. We were going to sell these and then buy some more supplies. We had made several more balls while we had been walking through the trees and so we had a pretty good amount of balls of precious metal to sell.

Manny, Claire and I pulled on cloaks and then we rubbed some dirt onto our faces. I put on a long sleeved tunic and a pair of gloves to hide my draconian arm and then we left the cover of the trees and went into the city.

We didn't have any trouble getting into the city. Inside the city and to the left and right of the large gate were two large boards with posters put up all over them. Covering half of the left board was wanted posters for criminals, and then the other half was for missing people.

The three of us looked through the missing people posters and made sure that we weren't up there and thankfully we weren't.

We found a guy to buy the balls of metal we had made. We got a pretty good amount of money and then we bought the supplies we needed and then we left the city and returned to where Blugun, Luna and Wendur remained hidden.

We packed up our new supplies and then we rested for the rest of the day and planned out the route that we were going to take. Now that we were sure that nobody was looking for us, we were able to use the actual roads.

We continued to travel by the day and then wait for Blugun, Luna and Wendur to catch up to us during the night. The days slowly turned into a week, and then the week slowly turned into another week. The nights of sparring were slowly putting muscle on my body. I was already getting some from the usual training at Vroengard, but I didn't have to walk all day there. The days spent working on magic also increased my magical power.

When we finally reached the Hadarac Desert, we stood at the edge and saw how far the sand reached. It went beyond as far as we could see.

Manny's jaw dropped and then he asked "How in the hell are we supposed to find one small cave in all of this?"

I shook my head and said "I don't know." I had expected the Amethyst Dragon to contact me in some way during the long journey to this desert, but she never had. I sent my mind out and stretched it out as far as I could. I could barely feel Blugun on the edge of my mind. It was getting dark and Blugun was getting ready to come back to us.

Manny, Claire and I went back into the trees and waited in the shade for our dragons to return. When they did, they lied down in the warm sand and relaxed.

The next morning, we got ready to traverse the desert. I got out the tube of gel that would protect our lips from the heat and I applied some to my lips, then I handed the tube to Claire and she applied some as well. After her, Manny did the same.

The three of us expanded our minds as far as we could and then we jumped up on the backs of the dragons and then they took off and flew into the sweltering heat of the day and we began our search for the Amethyst Dragon.

**I hope you enjoyed chapter eight. Please leave a review and have a nice day.**


	9. Chapter 9

We had been in the Hadarac Desert for about four days now and we hadn't found a single thing except for the ruins of a tower.

We were resting at the moment in the ruins and were eating a lunch of lizards that we had caught using magic. Once we were done eating, we drunk from our water skins and then flew off to the north to continue looking.

We had been flying steadily for close to two hours when I felt a sudden flare of pain in my head and Blugun's wings faltered mid-flap. Manny and Claire looked at us with worry on their faces.

_Did you feel that?_ Blugun asked me.

_Yeah, what do you think it was?_ I asked Blugun.

Blugun pondered it and then said _It was most likely just a slight headache coming on from the heat. I think that we will be fine once we. . . argh!_ Blugun cried as the pain hit the both of us in our minds. Blugun dived to the ground and landed roughly on the sand. I fell out of the saddle and held my head as the pain coursed through it. Luna and Wendur landed near us and then their riders hopped off and ran over to us. I felt another mind connect to mine but it soon left and retreated. The pain increased and then I started rolling on the ground because the pain had overflowed from my mind and through my body.

I yelled out in pain and Blugun roared and shook all over.

Then, slowly the pain faded away and was replaced with a chilly feeling. my vision started to fade and the last thing I was aware of was my friends kneeling next to me.

Once again I was in the cave. I heard strong winds blowing all around the cave and there was grains of sand flying all over the place. The cracks in the cave were getting larger. The Amethyst Dragon sat in her usual place with her fire still burning.

_I was wrong, _she said to me. _The danger is not only going to hit you, but me as well. My cave is slowly caving in, if to much sand gets on it, then the weight will destroy this cave and me along with it. You must hurry._ She said to me with urgency in her voice. I could see fear in her eyes. _You are close, I can feel you. Look for the sandstorm and I shall be there. I shall call out for you so you can find me. Please, Josh, please hurry._ As my vision faded to black, I heard a soft cracking sound.

I opened my eyes and saw a cloudless blue sky and felt the heat of the sand underneath me as well as a small breeze. I sat up quickly and felt a little dizzy. I shakily climbed to my feet and looked around. Blugun was also climbing to his feet but Luna, Wendur, Manny and Claire were nowhere in sight. I sent my mind out and found them hunting for some food and water. Manny and Wendur had just found a large amount of water under the ground and were using magic to bring it up and Claire and Luna were gathering together some lizards that they had killed with magic. I contacted them and told them that I was awake and alright. They all hurried back to Blugun and I and when they got there I drank some of the water and so did Blugun and then Manny quick cooked a lizard using magic and then I ate that as well while Blugun ate the rest raw. And then I told them what had happened.

While I was talking, I was looking around for a sandstorm, but I couldn't find one. "Once I was done explaining what had happened, I asked them "Did anybody see a sandstorm while you were out?"

"I didn't see anything." Claire said. Luna nodded her agreement and then I looked to Manny for his answer.

I saw some sand flying around in the distance, but it wasn't much so I didn't think much about it." Manny said to me.

I nodded and then jumped up on Blugun and then we flew off in the direction that Manny had come from. The other two riders hurried to catch up to us. Blugun was flying as fast as he could to reach the spot where Manny had been. In the distance I could see a dark spot of sand. Blugun hurried to it and then landed. I jumped off and inspected the sand. It was slightly damp from where the water had run back into the sand when Manny had released the magic. I looked around and saw nothing. I cast a spell and my vision increased greatly. I continued looking and to the west I could see a lot of sand flying through the air with a huge brown and golden cloud of sand following it.

"Gotcha. Just hold tight, we are on our way." I said to the air. Luna and Wendur landed next to us as I jumped back up on Blugun's back. Blugun leaped into the air and flapped his wings hard, sending him shooting through the air. I cast a quick spell that would protect us from all the sand and when we hit the sandstorm, the sand all just passed around us, not a single grain touched us, but the wind still howled around us and carried Blugun with it.

I felt minds touch my own and saw that it was Claire and Manny. I looked back and saw that they were far behind me.

_Slow down._ Manny said to me.

_No, not until I find her._ I sand to Manny. _She is in horrible danger and I must find her before she is killed by the sand._

_Then could you please just wait for us? _Claire asked me. _Blugun is the fastest flyer out of the the three of the dragons and they can't keep up with him._

_No, I will not slow down. We must find her._ Blugun said to Claire and Manny. _I refuse to slow down until I find the Amethyst Dragon. She is very important to Josh and so I must do anything I can to help him find her._

_Thank you, Blugun._ I said to my dragon. I looked around and saw nothing but sand.

_In the heart of the storm is where is reside. _A now familiar voice said to me.

_Where is that? _ I asked her.

_Keep heading west, and please hurry. _The dragon said to me.

_Got it._ Blugun flew even faster and kept heading straight. _Did anybody else hear her that time? _I asked my friends.

_Yeah,_ Manny said to me. _I heard her._

_As did I. _ Wendur said to me. Everybody else agreed with hearing her.

_Good._ I said to them.

Blugun kept flying hard, soaring through the strong winds. I felt the Amethyst Dragon pull on my mind from slightly to the left. Blugun corrected his course and continued flying. Blugun was getting tired from flying so hard for so long so I sent a portion of energy from my ring into him and then he continued flying with his renewed energy.

The Amethyst Dragon pulled on my mind, trying to bring me down and Blugun brought in his wings and dived down until he was about twenty feet from the ground and then he opened his wings again and caught the wind and continued to fly.

_Almost there._ She said to me. _Just a little bit farther._

_Alright, just hold on._ I said to her.

Blugun flew for about five more minutes, during which I had to give him even more of the energy from my ring because the energy he had stored up in his badge was all used up.

_You are very close._ Amethyst Dragon said to me. _Land now and you will almost be on top of me. _Blugun dove for the ground and before he hit the ground the sand all moved out from underneath him thanks to my spell, draining me of almost all of my energy. I cancelled the spell and while we were being buffeted by the wind and sand I reworked the spell to make it so that the sand only stayed away from our upper bodies.

Blugun landed and then I sent my mind down into the sand. I could feel something deep down there but all the blowing sand that was around me prevented me from seeing it clearly. I sent my mind out to Manny and Claire and found them still flying and trying to find us. I pulled their minds in the right direction and they started flying towards us.

I drew energy from my ring and then I cast the same sand repelling spell as before, but this time I covered a ten foot radius around us. When Luna and Wendur landed near us, they dropped their own sand spell and then I told them that Amethyst Dragon was directly below us.

Using magic, we started digging into the sand while we also used our hands and Blugun, Luna and Wendur dug into the sand with their claws. Holding up the sand shield was seriously depleting my strength as well as the energy in my ring.

"I still have a lot of energy left in my ring." Claire said to me. "Take down your sand spell and then I will put up my own." I nodded and then shut off the magic. The sand blasted in and knocked us all on our asses, including all three of the dragons. Several seconds later, the sand stopped hitting us and I looked over to Claire. She was shaking sand out of her hair and had a triumphant look on her face.

"That magic practice has really made you a lot better at this." I said to her.

"Thanks." She said to me.

We got back to work at digging and pushing all the dug up sand out of the way so that it didn't fall back into the hole.

"Guys, I think that the sandstorm is letting up." Mando said to us.

"I've been feeling a lot less sand hit my spell for the past few minutes." Claire said to us. "I think that you're right, Manny."

"Good, lets keep digging." I said to Manny and Claire.

We continued digging for the next fifteen minutes, conserving our energy by using very little magic, until Blugun's claws hit rough rock.

_You've reached me! I can hear you hitting the top of the cave._ The Amethyst Dragon said. _The opening is to the south._

"Guys, we've finally found her!" I called out to my friends. We cheered and then I said "The opening to the cave is to the south." All the excitement of finally finding the Amethyst Dragon had given me a lot of energy and I focused that energy on the sand that covered the entrance. I used the word for shift in the ancient language and the sand flowed up like liquid and piled up on the sides, quickly revealing even more of the cave.

I reached into my ring for more energy and the sand continued to move. I felt a torrent of energy course through me, the source of the energy was the dragon that we were trying to save.

_I think that it is only right that I help you to save me. _The Amethyst Dragon said to me.

_Thank you._ I said to her. I used the energy she gave me and then the sand blasted away from the front of the cave and flew out into the slowly dying storm. I jumped down into the huge hole I had created and looked at the large opening I had uncovered.

I hesitantly walked into the dark cave. A bright, blinding light filled the cave and once my eyes adjusted, I could finally see the dragon that had previously only been in my dreams.

Just as I had seen her, she was sitting in front of a blazing purple fire, her amethyst eyes glowing from the light of her fire. I walked across the sandy floor and over to the dragon. She bowed her head to me and I held a gloved hand against her glossy scaled snout and she hummed.

_It is good to finally see you._ She said to me.

_Yes, I am very glad that I have finally found you. I can't believe it, now we can finally get you out of here. _I said to her.

Manny and Claire came into the cave and looked around, amazed by not only the cave but also by the dragon that sat in the middle of the large cave. All three dragons came into the cave and looked at the dragon in the middle of the cave.

She was slightly bigger than the other three dragons and she had a lithe shape, and her dark scales and black horns made her slightly difficult to see in the dark. Blugun was the same, but his horns helped him to stand out a little more.

"We've come to take you to a place where you will always be safe and surrounded by your own kind." I told her. "Please say that you will come with us."

The Amethyst Dragon smiled and nodded. _I shall come with you to this place. Where is it?_

"It is the Isle of the Dragon Riders. A very large island called Vroengard." I said to her. "The island is full of riders and dragons."

_It sounds very nice._ She said to me. I shared several of my memories of the place with her and she smiled. _It truly is very nice._

I looked back at Manny and asked him "How is the sandstorm looking?"

Manny left the cave and stood outside for a few seconds and then he came back in and said to me "It is clearing up. After maybe an hour it will be completely clear. I say until then we all rest for a while."

"Good idea." I said to him. Then I turned to the Amethyst Dragon and asked her "Is it alright if we stay here until the storm abates?" She nodded. "Thank you."

_How long did it take you to find me? _she asked me.

"Close to a month." I told her. "But it was definitely worth it." she nudged me with her snout, knocking me back and on my ass. I felt regret coming from her mind but I just laughed and lied down on the warm sand. Everybody copied me and lied down as well.

"So, what is your name?" I asked the Amethyst Dragon.

_Amethi, it is derived from the word amethyst._

_It is a beautiful name. _I said to Amethi.

We all talked for a while and once we were done resting, I checked outside and saw that the sandstorm was all blown out. I returned inside and told everybody "Guys, we can leave now."

Everybody stood up and then we all went outside. We had some trouble getting out of the hole but once we were outside of the hole we stretched in the sunlight, especially Amethi. She stretched out her long neck and rolled in the sand and the sun.

_This feels so good!_ Amethi called out with her mind. Our mental connection showed me just how much she loved being outside. Her love of being outside was almost washing my mind away.

Amethi stretched out her wings, getting her muscles ready for her first flight in countless years. She dug her claws into the sand and then flapped her wings several times. After a bit of flapping she started to lift off of the ground.

Once Amethi was at a decent height, she started to fly around slowly, trying to get used to flying. Manny Claire and I all jumped up into the saddles of our dragons and they all quickly jumped up into the air, leaving deep gouges in the soft sand.

All four dragons flew around each other in the hot air, all of them were having a lot of fun flying together.

_Are you ready to do some real flying? _ Blugun asked Amethi.

_Hell yeah I am! _ Amethi said to him.

With Blugun leading the pack, the dragons started to fly towards the city of Gil'ead.

Once we were out of the Hadarac Desert, we went back to our old way of traveling. We riders walking and training all day and then the now four dragons catch up to us during the night. Amethi 's mind had a huge area and we could talk all day while we riders walked.

During the day, the other dragons taught Amethi how to hunt, fly, run on the ground, and all kinds of other things that she had forgotten during her time asleep.

On the trip back, unlike the last time, we took our time and it took us about three weeks to get to Gil'ead.

Just like last time, we went in disguise. This time, unlike last time, we had some trouble getting in. the guards checked our faces but they seemed uninterested and let us through. The main road was crowded with people. There was people with posters of people and they were asking whether or not anybody had seen them.

One of the people handed Manny a poster and then all three of us inspected the poster. It had a picture of a little kid on it. She had been missing for two weeks. All three of us went over to the billboard with the wanted and missing posters on it and looked at them all.

We looked over all of the posters and saw none of us. A man came up behind us and grabbed one of the posters that was up there and pulled it off. Underneath it was a very old man with a lot of scars on his face on a missing person poster.

Once we saw that there was posters underneath the other posters, we started to look underneath them all until we saw ones from the last time we were here. Now that we were sure that there was nobody looking for us, we went out and got ourselves some supplies. Once we were done, we left the city and went out to where the dragons were hiding.

We put all of the supplies into our saddle bags, I washed the dirt off of my face and cleaned out my hair and then I shaved the beard that had been growing over our long journey using a spell. Then I poured out some water into a small hole that I had dug. Then I waited for the ripples in the water to stop and then I used a quick spell and the reflections on the water turned into a picture of what I was guessing to be Eragon's study. Sitting behind a large oak desk that was stacked with scrolls, books, parchment and all kinds of other stuff was Eragon and he was scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

I cleared my throat and he held up a finger, meaning for me to wait a minute. I sat there patiently and once Eragon was done with what he was writing he came over to the mirror he was using and smiled at me.

"Good to see you Josh. How have you been?" Eragon asked me.

"It is very good to see you once more Eragon. I've been very good, how about you?" I asked him.

"I could be better." Eragon said to me. "The people we found on the island are almost all gone but their most powerful casters and their leader are all holed up underground. They have all the tunnels down there booby-trapped so it is difficult for us to get that many riders down there to take them out. The tunnels are pretty large so we have been able to get some dragons down there as well. With every day that passes, we are slowly making better progress and getting closer to the last of them. Come on ahead and start coming back because by the time you get here from your home we should have them all eradicated."

"That is good to hear." I said to him. "I shall see you then. Farewell."

Eragon smiled and said "Farewell."

I ended the spell and then I went over to where everybody was lying around and relaxing.

"Good news guys, we have been given permission to head to Vroengard so that means that you four no longer have to hide during the day." I said to the dragons.

All four dragons were over-joyed to hear this.

_Finally, I'm tired of hiding._ Blugun said to me. Amethi nodded her agreement.

_So how much longer until we reach Vroengard? _Amethi asked me.

"Well, now that we know that we are allowed back at Vroengard we will be able to just fly there; it should take us less than a week."

This time we were all overjoyed. That night we slept where we were and in the morning we left, riding on the backs of our dragons.

The days passed quickly and before we knew it we were a short ride away from Carvahall when we bedded down for the night.

_josh, _Amethi said to me, _will you please ride me tomorrow?_

_Sure, I would love to._ I said to Amethi. _I'm sure that it would be a lot of fun._

_Thank you, Josh._

As always we sparred before going to bed, but nobody's mind was on the fight; everybody's mind was on almost being back at Vroengard.

We had a restless few hours of sleep because of how excited we were. We woke up with the sun and rose as the sun rose. With permission from Blugun, I took off his saddle and then put it onto Amethi. I had to adjust several of the straps until it fit.

Amethi moved around with the saddle, trying to get used to the feel of leather on her scales. I waited until she gave me permission and then I jumped up and on to the saddle. Amethi moved around again and then started to flap her wings, trying to get airborne. It wasn't long before she was in the air and flying towards Carvahall.

Amethi flew slowly, carefully. I had a feeling that she was holding back, like she could fly a lot faster.

_Amethi, you fly a lot faster than this so why are you flying so slow? _I asked the purple dragon.

_I don't want to put you in danger._ Amethi said to me.

I smiled and said to her _It is alright, I've been riding Blugun for close to a year. Blugun is an incredibly fast flyer so I'm very good at riding fast dragons. You can fly at full speed with me; don't be afraid._

I felt joy blossom in Amethi's mind, and then I felt her shift underneath the saddle a few seconds before she bolted through the air. I was surprised by the sudden change in speed, but after I got over it, I found her speed to be exhilarating. She was much faster than Blugun had ever been and when I looked back I saw that he was having troubles keeping up with Amethi.

I turned back around and watched as the clouds shot overhead and the trees flew so fast underneath us that they were nothing but a blur. It would have normally taken us an hour or two but with Amethi it took about half an hour. I directed Amethi where to land and then after she landed she collapsed and breathed hard. I held a hand against her jaw and smiled.

_That was amazing._ I said to Amethi. _You are the fastest flyer that I have ever seen._

_Thank you._ Amethi said to me as she panted. _It was very tiring but I think it was worth it to go so fast._

_It was a lot of fun for me as well._ I said to Amethi. _What do you say to us flying together again later?_

_I would love to, but first I would like something to eat. I'm to tired to go hunting so would you please hunt for me?_

I smiled again and said to her through our mental link _Of course I will. I will be back in a little bit with the food._

I left the room that we had been using and then I left Carvahall and went into the woods. It wasn't long before I was carrying the carcass of a deer on my shoulders. Those nights of sparring practices and days full of running and walking had really built up the muscle on me.

I returned to the room and found Amethi sleeping on her dragon bed. I dropped the carcass near her, waking her up. Amethi yawned and then inspected the deer.

"Sorry I couldn't get you more. I'm not strong enough to carry more than one." I said to Amethi as I brushed deer hair off of my black leather long sleeve jerkin.

Amethi smiled at me and said _It is alright. As long as I have some food I'm fine._ Amethi bit into the haunch of the deer, snapping a couple of bones and getting some blood on the floor.

I lied down in bed and took a nap while Amethi finished her deer and the other two riders and three dragons caught up with us.

Once they did, like last time we riders went out and explored the city while the dragons stayed back and relaxed from the long flight.

The three of us ate at an inn and then we returned to our now sleeping dragons.

The next morning I rode Amethi again. She didn't go full speed like she did yesterday but she still went pretty fast and it wasn't long before we reached the beach that we had camped on when we first left Vroengard. There was a couple of other riders and dragons there but they all ignored Amethi and I until three more dragons landed near us.

We kept getting weird looks from them all, but the possibility of the riderless dragon being a wild dragon wearing full dragon armor kept them at bay.

I cleaned myself up once more and then I made another pool of water and contacted Eragon through his mirror again.

This time, the room was empty and there was papers scattered all over the place. I heard a loud smashing sound and then the mirror that I was looking through shook. A flash of bright orange shot across the room and then Eragon came running into the room after it. The orange thing was underneath the desk and Eragon was looking for it.

"Under the desk." I said to Eragon.

Eragon turned around and looked at the mirror and smiled. "Thank you." Eragon muttered in the ancient language and then his desk lifted up, revealing a paralyzed baby dragon. Eragon went to the dragon and picked it up. Then he uttered another spell and the dragon went limp. At first I thought that Eragon had killed the hatchling but then I saw that it's sides were moving and I realized that it was just sleeping.

Eragon sat on the edge of his desk and then looked at the mirror while he stroked the sleeping dragon. "How may I help you today, Josh?"

"I was just wondering if it was safe to return." I said to him.

Eragon nodded and then he said to me "Yes, it is. We eradicated the underground group two days ago and now it is completely safe for everyone to return."

I smiled and said to Eragon "Thank you, Ebrithil. Farewell."

I was about to end the spell when Eragon called out to me "Hold on a second." I looked back into the pool. Eragon set the baby dragon on his desk and then came closer to the mirror. "I am aware that you, Mando and Claire did not follow my orders and return home." I gulped and then Eragon continued. "I am also aware that you now have another member with you so please take care of her and give Amethi my regards." Then the spell that I had casted ended without me telling it to.

Manny and Claire stared at me, as did all four of the dragons.

"What in the hell just happened?" I asked everybody.

"How did Eragon know that we didn't return home?" Manny asked me. I shook my head in response.

Claire went over to a tree and leaned against it, then she fell to her as and dropped her head in her hands. I felt from her mind that she had gotten a slight headache from the confusion.

"How in the hell did Eragon know that we had another dragon with us?" Manny asked me.

I just shook my head and said "You haven't asked me about the more important question."

Manny looked at me in confusion.

"How did Eragon know her name?" Manny looked at me in bewilderment. "Lets just forget about it for now and worry about it later. We have a long flight ahead of us and Blugun, Wendur, Luna and Amethi all need to rest."

After an hour of rest, during which Manny, Claire and I all replenished some of the energy in our rings from the surrounding trees, we all got up on a dragon; this time I was riding Blugun, not Amethi.

The dragons flew high and fast and after several hours of almost non-stop flying, the dragons had went fishing in the middle of the flight, Vroengard came into view.

_Is that it? _Amethi asked me.

_Yeah, that is the Isle of the Riders, your new home._ I said to the excited purple dragon.

_I can't wait to land!_ Amethi said with a roar.

We all shared in her excitement and then all four dragons sped up. When the island was almost beneath us, I looked around and saw that the landscape of parts of the island had changed slightly. Some parts were higher than they used to be, and others were lower than their original position.

On the large, stone landing platform, there was a group of other riders and dragons. When we landed, Amethi looked around herself at her new home.

_The air smells very fresh here, I'm loving this place already._ Amethi said to me.

_Good, I know that you'll love the rest of the island as well. _I said to Amethi.

Amethi looked down at me and then asked me _Will you please give me a tour of the island?_

_Sure._ I said to Amethi.

I told everybody else that I was going to give Amethi a tour of the island and that I would meet them back at our building, or the remains of the building if it was destroyed.

I jumped up on Amethi's back and then she took off. She glided slowly over the island while I pointed thing out to her using my mind.

The last place I took her was the land of the wild dragons. I spread my mind out and found Gundro in his cave, sleeping. I woke him with my mind and then he tried to lash out at me with his own mind until he realized who I was. The old dragon crawled out of his cave and then leapt off of the ledge and flew through the air until he got to the clearing that Amethi and I were standing in.

_Josh, who is this? _Gundro asked me. _Is she who I think she is?_

"Gundro, I would like to introduce you to Amethi, the Amethyst Dragon." I said to Gundro.

Gundro opened and closed his mouth several times and then he ducked his head to her and said _Welcome to the Isle of the Riders and the land of the wild dragons. We have been waiting for you to come to us for quite some time now._

_You can thank Josh and his friends for doing that._ Amethi told Gundro. _If it wasn't for them I would most likely be dead right now._

Gundro looked at me and then bowed his head again. _Josh, you are truly a hero to all dragons. By my right as the leader of the wild dragons, I now name thee, Dragon Friend. Bear the name well, very few have ever been given this title._

"I thank you, Gundro for bestowing this gift upon me. What will you do now that Amethi is here?" I asked him.

_We wild dragons must hold a meeting to decide that, until then you are welcome within our caves, Amethi. _Gundro said to her.

_Thank you, Gundro. It would be an honor to sleep with my own kind._ Then Amethi turned to me and said _Thank you for bringing me here, Josh. I can never repay you the kindness you have shown me. Would you like for me to fly you to the place where you sleep?_

I smiled to her and said _No thanks, I've been doing a lot of riding lately and not enough running. I need to get my exercise. I shall see you later, farewell Amethi._

_Farewell, Josh._ I started walking away and as I walked, Amethi lifted herself into the air and left, taking her mind out of my own as well. My mind felt strangely empty without her there. I ran the rest of the way to my building and thankfully it was intact. Not a single crack was on it. I went into my room and found Blugun there with his armor off and stacked neatly in one corner and all of the saddle bags as well as the saddle were sitting next to his bed.

Blugun was lying in his bed, sleeping and I soon was the same.

**So what do you guys think about Amethi? Now that Amethi has been found, what else is there for this story? Is anybody wondering about that? If so, then you will just have to wait and see.**


	10. Chapter 10

We had all been back at the island for almost a week now and all the other riders and dragons were back and it wasn't long before the classes were all back on track.

Sadly, I never got a chance to see Amethi again. The three or four times I tried to see her during my time after classes she had been busy with her own stuff.

On my first free day, when I woke up it was to someone knocking on my door. I stood up and went to the door and opened it to find a dwarf there.

"May I help you?" I asked him.

"Eragon would like to see you." The dwarf said to me. "The dragon Amethi will be there as well. Eragon expects you in his office within ten minutes. I shall be waiting outside until you are ready." Then the dwarf went to the road and waited.

I went back into my room and closed the door. I bathed and shaved with a quick spell and then I got dressed, strapped my sword on and then slipped on my boots and left my room. I went to the dwarf and said "Lead the way. He nodded and then he started walking. After about five minutes arrived at a large building.

The dwarf led me inside and then we went straight down a large corridor and took several turns until we reached a simple wooden door. The dwarf opened the door and then stepped aside. I walked into the room and then the dwarf closed the door. I looked around the office and saw that it was the same one that I saw when I contacted Eragon, but this time there was also a wooden chair in front of Eragon's desk.

Eragon was behind his desk writing on some paper. I looked around and saw that to the left of the door was the mirror that I had contacted and to the right was a large window that a dragon's head could easily fit through.

I was about to get Eragon's attention, but then two loud thuds could be heard from near the window I turned and looked and saw Amethi and a black dragon outside. The black dragon flew away after a minute or so and then Amethi walked up to the window and put her head through it.

I went over to her and opened my mind to her. We connected our minds and then I held a hand against her snout. Amethi smiled at me and said _It is very good to see you once more, Josh. How have you been?_

_I've been very good. How about you? How are you enjoying your time here?_

_It has been very fun. I've been learning a lot from the other wild dragons. It is very nice to once again be near my own kind._

_That is very good to hear. Have you started taking your regular classes?_

Amethi slightly shook her large head and then she said _I'm still just getting just some lessons from random dragons every once and a while._

_When do you think that you will start taking your classes? _I asked the purple dragon.

_I was told that I will be starting them tomorrow._

_Good, you are going to be amazing in those classes. So far, there has been no dragon that could outfly Blugun but now there is someone who can fly circles around him. I also saw how well you hunt. You flow between the trees like water flowing between rocks. You are going to excel with your classes._

I felt the happiness that filled her mind as well as her pride. _Thank you, Josh._

_You are very welcome._ I said to Amethi.

Eragon cleared his throat and then Amethi and I looked over at him. He was still sitting in his chair.

"Josh, please have a seat." Eragon said as he gestured to the chair in front of the desk.

I sat down and said "If this is about no doing as I was told, I apologize." I looked Eragon in the eyes and then I said "There was no way that I was going to let Amethi die in that desert. I truly do apologize for not doing as I was told, but I wouldn't take back a single thing I did for anything."

Eragon nodded, let out a long breath, and then he smiled. "That was exactly what I was wanting to hear."

I was silent for a few seconds and then I said "What?"

Eragon stood up and walked around his desk to Amethi. He held a hand against Amethi's cheek. "What you did was truly selfless. You were willing to risk not only your status as a rider, but also your life to save someone who was in a truly difficult place to reach." Eragon came over to me and said "Josh, you are truly the one that we have been looking for."

"You were looking for me?" I asked him.

"Yes. You see, back when the elves and I all first came here and started to rebuild the island we found a strange room, one that nobody knew was there. There wasn't some spell keeping the information from everybody's minds, nobody knew that the room was there." Eragon told me. "Inside the room there was a large amount of strange objects. A large number of weapons, several of them we had previously thought to be destroyed, a large number of scrolls covered in the ancient language, and a history of this island all put into one very thick book."

There was a knock at the door and then Eragon said "You may enter." The doors opened and an Urgal came in, carrying a metal box. He set the box on the desk and then he spoke in his strange language to Eragon and then Eragon responded in the same language. The Urgal left and then Eragon used a strange spell, one that was in my head one second and then gone the next.

The metal box opened on a delicate looking pair of hinges. The entire box looked weak but I could still tell that there was a large number of powerful spells imbued in the box.

Out of the box, Eragon pulled out a huge book bound in soft brown leather. On the front was 'History of Vroengard' pressed into the leather and was lined in gold.

"This book was found hidden in the back of the room. It was cloaked in countless spells that made it almost impossible to find. Not only was it hidden within the wall, it also had spells around it that nobody, not even our most powerful spell-caster could unravel. I ended up having to use something very special that I had learned long ago. After we got the book out of the wall, we took off the rest of the spells that had protected the book. Then, we started to read."

"What we read in this book was both amazing, and shocking." Eragon said to me. "We found a prophesy near the end of the book. It spoke of a young man, a guy with a strange appendage as well as a strange mental connection." Eragon opened the book to a page that was completely blank.

Eragon uttered a spell and then words started to appear on the page.

Eragon handed me the book and said to me "Read, and then you will understand."

I nodded and then looked down at the book.

At the top of the page, in the ancient language was written the words 'the Call for the Dark' and then there was a word that I didn't know. I pointed it out to Eragon and then he said to me "That word roughly means a warrior holy-man. It used to be a rank in a fighting guild that had been going on before the attack on Vroengard. If you were giver this title, then that meant that you were not only a gifted fighter, but also a man that was close to who they believed to be the one that created it all."

I nodded, absorbing all that he said. I looked back down to the book and continued to read. I had a pretty good vocabulary in the ancient language but there was quite a few strange words in the prophesy.

Roughly translated, it said

_There will come a day when a rider will come._

_A rider with an arm and a dragon of the night._

_He will come and fight the evil that will oppose you._

_The enemy will come from beneath you,_

_From beneath the place that you think is the safest._

_The rider will look for a lost gem within the sand,_

_And then return with it and fight till the end of the battle._

_Then there will be two more gems that will come to help,_

_Both like the first but also much different._

The words stopped there. I looked up to Eragon and asked him "Why does it just end like that?"

Eragon scratched his chin and then he said "For some reason we can never uncover the rest of the prophesy, not without destroying the entire book in the process."

I nodded and then asked him "You think that this is me?"

Eragon nodded and then he pointed to my right arm and quoted the prophesy. "A rider will come with an arm and a dragon of the night. Your arm is blacker than night and Blugun blends in the night sky, that is why he hunts best at night. The animals see him and think that his scales are the sky and his horns and claws are the stars."

"That was what first made me think that it was you who was in the prophesy so I told Selena to give you, Mando and Claire the scrolls about Amethi, the cave and the creature, and the elf that had found her." Eragon told me. "In this book there is a statement from the elf that had found Amethi, it says that when he had touched Amethi and felt her mind connect with his, he had learned about her life and her name. He also learned about where Amethi had come from."

Eragon pulled a map out of his desk and then unrolled it. He pointed out in what appeared to be open water in the sea. "Right here, there is a small island with an underground labyrinth. In the center of the maze was a forest and in the center of the forest was countless dragon skeletons as well as elf skeletons. In there, there was quite a few dragon nests, and all of them had broken eggs in them. I found the nest that had Amethi's egg in it, and around her egg was two more eggs, both un-broken and un-hatched." Eragon reached into his desk again and pulled out three shards, each of a different color.

"This piece of shell," Eragon said pulling out the amethyst colored egg shell, "Belongs to you." Eragon set the egg shell close to Amethi and she sniffed it. "This shell belongs to your brother." Eragon said as he pulled out a topaz colored shell and set it next to the amethyst one. "And then this last one belongs to your sister." Eragon said as he set a piece of ice blue shell down. "The gem that this egg represents is a very rare and beautiful gem called an ice sapphire. In all of my years, I have only ever found three pieces of this gem."

"Surprisingly, the ice sapphire dragon was enchanted to hatch for a rider which is very unusual because that enchantment didn't come into being until after the dragon and elf war was over. We of the council suspect that someone here on Vroengard tampered with her egg, but I think that it was for the better. Having a dragon related to you and being bonded to a rider is a great honor." Eragon told Amethi. "Your sister hatched for a girl named Katrina Stronghammer, a direct descendant of Roran Stronghammer. She will be a great rider. She was here on a surprise visit with her great uncle who I am very good friends with. Katrina named your sister Glacia, the ancient language word for ice. Your brother's name, I still haven't figured it out. Would you like to name him?" Eragon asked Amethi.

_Since he is the topaz dragon, how about Zaptho, the ancient language term for topaz? _Amethi asked Eragon.

"That is a very good name. Would you like to see Zaptho? We have him in the hatchery where we keep all the un-hatched and recently hatched dragons." Eragon asked her.

_I would like that very much. Where is my sister, Glacia? I would like to see her as well._

"Glacia is with her rider back in Alagaesia. It is customary for each new rider to first be tutored by another rider that has been posted there." Eragon then said to Amethi "Jason was first tutored by a rider named Septimus, if there had been any other hatchings then the new rider and dragon would have also studied under Septimus. For all new riders, they must pass a series of tests and then when the teacher has dubbed them ready, the new rider and dragon make their way here to Vroengard for their advanced level of training."

_Oh, so I have to go to Alagaesia in order to see my sister. Will she be visiting Vroengard sometime between her time training under their first teacher and the time where she must leave home and come here?_

"Yes, she has often visited here and I have no doubt that she will visit soon." Eragon said to Amethi. Eragon's face went blank for a few seconds and then he focused on Amethi again said to her "I've just sent for your brother. He should be here in a few minutes."

_Thank you, Ebrithil._

"You're welcome Amethi." Eragon went back to his desk and then picked up the paper he had been writing on. He inspected it and then set it back down and wrote a few more words down. Then with a flourish Eragon signed the paper and used a ring on his hand to make an impression on the paper. After a small spell, the wet ink dried on the paper and then Eragon wrapped it up in a tough looking material and tied it with a ribbon.

Eragon wrote a name on the paper and then used the same spell as before and dried the ink and then he handed it to me. "That is a letter to Septimus. I require his assistance and I can't get a hold of him. I want you and Amethi to deliver that letter to Septimus as fast as you can."

I looked down at the wrapped letter and then I asked Eragon "But what about Blugun?"

"I know how you feel about having to ride another dragon other than your own, but I need this letter delivered as fast as possible and I have watched Amethi practicing with the other wild dragons. You are incredibly fast Amethi and what I need right now is speed. Will you please fly with Josh to help him to get this letter to Septimus?"

_Yes, Ebrithil. It shall be done. _Amethi said to Eragon with a nod from her large head.

"There is still the problem with Blugun. What will I say to him about this?" I asked Eragon.

"Just tell him that I need this letter delivered as soon as possible and that I need you and Amethi to fly together because you are one of my best riders and Amethi is quite possibly the fastest dragon." Eragon told me. "If you two fly fast then it should take around a week to get there and back with one full day to spend with your teacher and your mother."

"Blugun has been really wanting to go home for a visit. How can I possibly tell him that I'm going home and he isn't?" I asked Eragon.

"I don't know Josh. Blugun is fast, but he's not fast enough. Riding him will make this delivery take longer." Eragon placed both of his hands on my shoulders and then he looked into my eyes and said "Please josh, you must understand that riding your dragon is simply not going to work for this mission. I know how terrible it is to have to ride another dragon and then having to spend a long time away from your dragon. About two hundred years ago I had to spend nearly a year here while Saphira was in Alagaesia."

"We faced the same problem that you are now and I saw that my work here would prevent me from ever returning to my home in Alagaesia." Eragon said to me. I couldn't imagine spending so long away from Blugun. "It was terrible being away from Saphira for so long but I pulled through and Saphira returned unscathed. I really hope that Blugun will see that this must be done."

"As do I." I said to Eragon with a sigh. "So when do we leave?"

"As soon as you can. I have a saddle already made for Amethi. I have also had some armor made for her. To help keep her fast, the armor is lightweight metal, forged using the elven method. It has several enchantments on it that make it stronger without adding weight as well as several other simple wards. The armor and the saddle should both be by the front door."

Someone knocked on the door and Eragon told them to enter. An elven maiden brought in the little orange dragon that I had seen when I had contacted Eragon. Zaptho was looking a like he had just been woken up.

The elf set down Zaptho near Amethi and then took several steps back. Amethi sniffed the baby dragon and then Zaptho squealed in happiness as Amethi nuzzled him with her snout. Watching the siblings play together made my heart swell with not only happiness, but also a small flare of sadness. I had always wanted a sibling and that was kind of what Blugun had become, he became like a brother to me but what I had always wanted was a brother that was human as well.

Zaptho started climbing on Amethi like she was some sort of tree to climb. It was adorable to watch them play. I heard the ancient language being muttered and then I looked over to its source and saw Eragon holding a piece of perfectly squared slate. On the front of it there was color flowing over it, Eragon was making a fairth.

When the fairth was finished, it showed Amethi smiling and looking down at a playing Zaptho, all against a background of almost black, slightly silver around the edges of both dragons. Eragon showed me the fairth and then he showed Amethi the fairth. I could feel from Amethi's mind that she really liked the fairth.

"You may have this as a gift from me. I shall have a frame made and then it will be taken to your cave. It shall be there before you leave to deliver the letter." Eragon said to Amethi as he gave the fairth to the elf who took it and left. Amethi nodded and then went back to playing with her brother.

"Josh, Zaptho needs to learn about the world outside so I would like for you and Amethi to take him with you as well. He is still very small so he can just ride on your shoulder during the trip. Keep an eye on him, he likes to wander."

"Yes, Ebrithil." This was going to make it a lot harder to explain to Blugun but I dared not refuse Eragon. "Shall I take him with me for the night or shall he stay here until Amethi and I leave tomorrow?"

"I shall keep him here and then before you leave I shall bring him to you." Eragon said to me.

"Yes, Ebrithil."

"You two had better get to sleep, you have a long trip ahead of you. You may go to breakfast early, an hour before the regular time. That is when all the other riders and dragons that have missions go for breakfast. Farewell." I stood up from my seat and Amethi licked Zaptho and then we both left through the window, leaving a baby dragon watching us from the open window.

Amethi flew to the front of the building and sitting a little ways from the front door was an orderly pile of dragon armor and near that was a lightweight black leather saddle. A passing human rider helped me to get Amethi's armor and saddle on. I thanked her and then Amethi took off in front of the building.

Amethi dropped me off at my building and then she went to her cave. I went inside and found Blugun still sleeping. I went over to my closet and pulled out one of my saddle bags. I grabbed several tunics, a jerkin and then several pairs of pants. I put it all into the leather saddle bag and then I got out some basic supplies like a map of Alagaesia, a compass, a bag of coins and several other simple things. I put everything into the saddles bag and then I set the bag near the door and before I could climb back into bed, I felt Amethi's mind calling out to me.

I went outside and waited for a few seconds until she landed near me.

_I need your help to get the armor and the saddle off._ Amethi said to me.

_Sorry about that._ I said to Amethi. I went over to Blugun's door and opened it. Amethi went in, making sure to be quiet because of the sleeping dragon. I took off all of Amethi's armor and then I took off her saddle and then I piled it next to Blugun's armor and saddle.

_Thank you._ Amethi said to me.

_You're welcome._ I said to Amethi. _I shall see you tomorrow, farewell._

_Farewell, Josh. _Amethi left the room and then I closed the door and climbed into bed and quickly went to sleep.

I was awoken by Manny for lunch and then we went and ate with our dragons, during which I had a long mental conversation with Blugun. Thankfully Blugun understood the importance of the delivery and he said that he didn't mind that I was riding Amethi instead of him. But he was still greatly disappointed that he couldn't see Septimus and Mom. I also talked to Manny and Claire about what I had been told to do. They were both thrilled that Amethi and I being trusted with such an important task.

After lunch, Blugun and I spent as much time as we could together. We even went out and hunted together for dinner. I cooked up a delicious stew and then the two of us ate it. Obviously Blugun needed more food so I also hunted down another deer and then I quick cooked it with magic and seasoned the meat to perfection. Blugun ate the deer slowly, savoring the meat.

After words, we flew for a while longer and then we descended into a clearing and lied down together for an hour or so and then before we went back to the building I gathered up a large amount of energy into my ring from the surrounding trees and then we went back to our room and we both slept in his bed.

I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I sent out my mind and saw that it was Amethi. I stood up and stretched, then I went and opened the large door for her. She walked in and then settled down near Blugun.

_Good morning, Josh. Are you ready for our mission? _Amethi asked me.

_Yes, and thankfully Blugun understood how important it is that we get to Septimus as fast as we can. _I said to Amethi. I looked outside the still open door and checked the position of the sun and saw that it was about an hour until regular breakfast began. _You ready for breakfast?_ Amethi nodded and then I went and grabbed a tunic and put it on as well as my boots. We then left and went to breakfast.

In my eating hall there was a large number of other riders, all looked much older than I. some seemed skeptical about why I was in here, und some just stared at me and my arm. Again I started to feel self-conscious about my arm. I ignored the feeling and walked with my chest out and my shoulders squared.

I got some food from the tables and then I went to an empty table and ate quickly and then I left the building. I waited for a few more minutes until Amethi was done eating and then she flew down to where I was. Then the two of us walked back to my room.

We went inside and then I started getting Amethi's armor and saddle on. When there was still a few more straps left on the saddle that I still had to buckle, someone knocked on my door. I sent my mind out and saw who it was then I went over to the door and opened it for Eragon, who was carrying a sleeping Zaptho.

Eragon was also carrying a small sack. He set Zaptho on my bed and then handed me the bag he was carrying.

"That bag has some special hatchling food in it. Give a handful to Zaptho during breakfast and again during dinner with his regular food. I have already fed him breakfast so today you only need to worry about his dinner." Eragon told me. "In the past week I have noticed that he was slightly weak so I made this special food to help him. So far, I think that it is working."

"Yes, Ebrithil." I told him.

I felt from my mind that Blugun had woken up. I heard him yawn and then I went over to him and rubbed his head. _I shall be leaving soon, Blugun. Farewell my friend, be safe and be strong._

_Farewell Josh, I hope you have a safe journey. Give Mother and Septimus what I have given you._ Blugun nudged me with his nose and then I hugged his large head and sighed.

I released Blugun and then went back to Amethi and finished the straps on her saddle. Then I went to the bed and picked up Zaptho. I brought him over to Blugun and Blugun sniffed him.

_He smells like Amethi. Are they related? _Blugun asked me.

_Yes, his name is Zaptho, he is Amethi's brother. Amethi also has a sister named Glacia and she is bonded with a trainer. They are in Alagaesia right now taking their beginning classes. _I told Blugun.

_He is weak. _Blugun said to me.

I nodded and then pointed out the sack that Eragon had given me. _That bag contains some special food for Zaptho. It should help him to grow stronger._

_That is good to hear. I shall see you in a week._

_Yes, I shall see you in a week._ I stood up from my crouch near Blugun and then picked up Zaptho and carried him closer to Amethi. I set him down next to her and then I picked up my saddlebag and strapped it onto Amethi, as well as the bag of food for Zaptho.

"Josh, Amethi, good luck to you two. Take good care of Zaptho. Have a safe journey, farewell." Then Eragon left the room. I went to where I had my armor and put it all on and then I grabbed my sword from where it was leaning against the wall.

I strapped my sword to the saddle and then I picked up Zaptho and climbed into Amethi's saddle. I looked down at Blugun and then continued to watch him as Amethi left the room.

Amethi had some troubles at first, but then she managed to close the door with her tail. Amethi flapped her wings hard, the sudden motion waking up Zaptho. Then Amethi started to climb high into the air and before long she was soaring over the trees and buildings.

The recently awoken hatchling in my lap loved the breeze that was blowing around us. Zaptho had his neck stretched as far as it could go and he had his wings stretched out. I held a hand against his back to hold him down and prevent the wind from blowing him away from Amethi and I.

The three of us were soon over the sea and on our way to Alagaesia.

It was quite some time later that Amethi was flying over solid land once more. Amethi didn't stop though and continued flying until she reached Carvahall. Amethi rested in one of the rooms while I went out and got food for the three of us.

I came back holding a deer on my shoulders. I dropped it in front of Amethi and Zaptho and then I went to go and get the other one that I had killed. When I came back the first one was gone, no trace of it was left except for a few small blood spots on the ground.

Out of this deer, I took off a section for myself. I cooked it with magic and then seasoned it. I ate slowly and then once I was done and Amethi was fully rested, we left the room and Amethi began to fly once more.

Our flight to my home town was short, though it felt long. When we were finally able to see the edge of the city, I felt overjoyed. Amethi and Zaptho shared my joy. As we flew slowly over the town, I pointed out what building was what in the small town. Once that was done, Amethi flew to a nearby cliff and landed on it. I jumped off and inspected the house that I had come to know as my first master's home.

It was grown out of the trees that filled the area. Four large oaks made his home, and it was surrounding my roses that he had magically altered. During the day they were a bright golden color and during the night they were a few shades of blue lighter than Blugun's scales.

I felt an old and familiar mind touch mine and I opened myself up to the mind and let it in. Seconds later the door to the wooden home was flung open and a tall human with wavy blond hair and gentle green eyes that shone with excitement. Septimus wore a light brown traveling cloak, a white tunic and a pair of brown cotton pants. He had one boot on and he held the other in his hand.

Septimus came over to me and picked me up with his outstanding strength and then gave me a hug.

"I was so worried about you Josh." Septimus said to me. "I got a message more than a month ago that you and Blugun were supposed to return here but you never came. I got so worried and so I left here and went out looking for you two but I couldn't find you. I just got back from looking for you to replenish some of my supplies and see if Eragon had heard anything about you."

"Ebrithil, Blugun and I are fine." I said to Septimus. "We both had to find someone here in Alagaesia before it was to late. We went with our friends and we found her, we found her just in time and if we had been just a few minutes to late then she would have died." I said to Septimus. "We apologize for making you worry, but we couldn't risk anybody knowing that we weren't going where we were supposed to; there was a high possibility of us being taken here if we were found out so we didn't tell anybody. We truly are sorry, but we will never take back a single thing that we had done no matter what."

Septimus laid his hand on my shoulder and said "I'm so proud of you, my apprentice. You and Blugun risked everything to save someone. That is truly a selfless act and you deserve whatever praise you get. Tell me, Josh, who is it that you and Blugun saved and where is Blugun? Plus, who is this lovely dragon and the little one on her head?"

"Her name is Amethi, and the little dragon's name is Zaptho. They are brother and sister." I said to Septimus. "Blugun had to stay back on the island because Eragon needed me to deliver this letter to you as fast as I could and Amethi was the fastest dragon on the island." I pulled the letter out of my saddle bag and then I handed it to Septimus.

Septimus opened it and began reading. The farther down the paper Septimus got, the more he looked worried. Then he got to the end and read the last few lines and his eyes widened in shock.

"Josh, will you please remove your cloak and jerkin and let me look at your arm?" Septimus asked me. Something in his voice scared me as he asked me. I had never seen him scared or worried about anything. I removed my cloak and then took off my jerkin, left arm first, and then my right.

I took off my left glove and then my right and raised my right arm for Septimus to see. I saw a spark of fear shine in Septimus's eyes and then he asked me "Is Amethi the one who you found and did you find her in the sand?"

I nodded.

Septimus took a deep breath and then he asked me "Does Amethi have another sibling?"

Again I nodded. "Her name is Glacia; she is the color of an ice sapphire."

Septimus nodded and then he said to us "You three must be very hungry. Wait here while prepare something to eat." Septimus was gone in his tent before I had time to react.

He returned less than a minute later carrying a bowl of fruits and a pitcher of what I was guessing to be some kind of fruit juice. "Gunder, my dragon, should be returning with some deer soon. Do not be frightened by him, he will not harm you. He will land here in a minute or so, just go ahead and relax until he comes. My pupil and I have much to speak of."

I followed Septimus as his long legs carried him away from me. It wasn't long before we reached an empty spot on the cliff that held a small table and two chairs. Septimus sat down and then I did the same. Septimus pulled out two clay mugs from within his cloak and then he poured the red liquid from the pitcher into the mugs.

Septimus handed a mug to me and then I held it up to my mouth to drink. It smelled strange so I cast a spell on it and saw that Septimus had slipped one of his practice poisons in the drink. The poison did nothing more than give you a headache for several minutes.

I cast the spell that Septimus had taught me for poisoned food and drinks and then I drank the juice, but was surprised to find that it was wine.

"You trust me with wine?" I asked Septimus.

Septimus smiled at me and said "Yes, I do. After all you have been through I think you deserve it."

"Thank you, Ebrithil." I said to Septimus. I took another sip of the red wine and then I set my mug down and asked Septimus "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Septimus took another drink from his wine and then he turned to me and said "We need to talk about something that was started long ago. Before even the elves started fighting the dragons." Septimus sighed and set down his mug after a long drink from it. Again he reached into his cloak and this time he pulled out a book.

It was slightly thick and bound in thick black leather. The front cover of the book held a piece of thin marble and on the marble was a fairth. The fairth was of an oddly shaped speck of green that slightly resembled a crescent moon with the two points facing down. Near the top of the fairth was a large purple gem, in the bottom left corner was a slightly smaller icy blue gem and then in the bottom right was a small orange gem. Above the fairth were words that I didn't recognize and they were pressed into the leather. The edge of the covers of the book was covered in silver metal.

"This book was found long ago on Vroengard. It was in the same room as the one that Eragon showed you." Septimus told me.

"How did you know that Eragon showed me a book? I asked Septimus.

"It was in his letter." Septimus told me. "This book, had far more enchantments and wards on it than anything else in the room." Septimus opened the book with a creaking sound and then on the front page was even more weird words that I didn't know. "We had originally thought that this was written in code, but it is actually written in a whole other language. We believe it to be the language that has long since been forgotten. But, thanks to this book I found two hundred years ago in some old ruins in the Hadarac desert I was able to start translating this book right here." Septimus said as he patted the cover of the book. "I started with the title and found out that this book hold much more than I had originally thought."

Septimus closed the book and then held a finger against the first word on the cover and then moved his hand to the right as he read the title. _"Uan Sheil ir wre Reacun." _

"What does that mean?" I asked him with fear in my voice.

Septimus looked up from the book and at me. What I saw in his eyes made a shiver run down my spine. "_Uan Sheil ir wre Reacun; _in our own language, the title of the book is,_ 'The Fall of our Kind.'"_

**I believe that this is the perfect ending to this story and the perfect beginning to the next. My dear readers, thank you for sticking with me through this whole story and please stay with me as I start up my next one, the sequel to **_**Dragonling; the Fall of our Kind.**_


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